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A review by liralen
You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir by Eireann Corrigan
3.0
I may have to revise my less-than-flattering view of books done in verse.
I'd had this one on my to-read list for a while, but had put it off because...well, I've read some verse novels done exceptionally well (Ellen Hopkins, anyone?) and some done...less well...and overall find them more miss than hit. But Corrigan had an essay in [b:Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?|3558938|Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?|Marissa Walsh|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348275252s/3558938.jpg|3601099] (actually, Ellen Hopkins also had a story in verse in that book...), and when I closed the back cover of that book I turned straight to the computer to put Corrigan's memoir on hold at the library.
Now, none of this is to say that the book is perfect. I can't judge it from a poetry perspective, because, well, I am not a good judge of whether poetry is good or not. But I do think that the framing sometimes made it difficult to place the author in time and space, separated her a little from what was going on in her life. The style isn't particularly spare, and there are some really beautiful lines (116: "People also use the word recovery to describe/gathering the shards of the broken./Divers swimming circles around the shipwreck and taking./Meaning: to salvage.") -- it was just hard in places to understand what was going through her mind.
I have no great insights into this book, but it's one that I expect to end up in possession sooner or later.
I'd had this one on my to-read list for a while, but had put it off because...well, I've read some verse novels done exceptionally well (Ellen Hopkins, anyone?) and some done...less well...and overall find them more miss than hit. But Corrigan had an essay in [b:Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?|3558938|Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?|Marissa Walsh|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348275252s/3558938.jpg|3601099] (actually, Ellen Hopkins also had a story in verse in that book...), and when I closed the back cover of that book I turned straight to the computer to put Corrigan's memoir on hold at the library.
Now, none of this is to say that the book is perfect. I can't judge it from a poetry perspective, because, well, I am not a good judge of whether poetry is good or not. But I do think that the framing sometimes made it difficult to place the author in time and space, separated her a little from what was going on in her life. The style isn't particularly spare, and there are some really beautiful lines (116: "People also use the word recovery to describe/gathering the shards of the broken./Divers swimming circles around the shipwreck and taking./Meaning: to salvage.") -- it was just hard in places to understand what was going through her mind.
I have no great insights into this book, but it's one that I expect to end up in possession sooner or later.