Scan barcode
owlette's reviews
262 reviews
Index of Women by Amy Gerstler
4.0
My favorites:
- "Ode to Birth Control"
- "Anthem"
- "Tooth Fairy Sonnet": subverts expectation of tooth fairies as innocent fantasy for children. It made me think about what tooth fairy is for: why do we tell this story to to a child when the child lost one of their teeth and therefore is physically growing up? And what the heck is "a marble quarry whirlwind"?
- "My Ego"
- "Letters from a Lost Doll": I was apprehensive about this because I loved the story of Kafka writing letters to a girl by posing as her lost doll and I didn't want it to be ruined by some cynical twist (see "Tooth Fairy Sonnet"). But it was actually sweet and uplifting in a different way.
- "The Semmelweis Opera": The genial storytelling that Gerstler achieves in a few pages in this prose poem is something that I wish more authors would take inspirations from. *looking at [b:The Liar's Dictionary|53284801|The Liar's Dictionary|Eley Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594618149l/53284801._SX50_.jpg|64196454]*
- "The Feminine Art of Quilting"
- "Black Coat"
- "Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope": I love the dreamy phrasing of "the wet silver/ of Poseidon's eyes."
- "Ode to Birth Control"
- "Anthem"
- "Tooth Fairy Sonnet": subverts expectation of tooth fairies as innocent fantasy for children. It made me think about what tooth fairy is for: why do we tell this story to to a child when the child lost one of their teeth and therefore is physically growing up? And what the heck is "a marble quarry whirlwind"?
- "My Ego"
- "Letters from a Lost Doll": I was apprehensive about this because I loved the story of Kafka writing letters to a girl by posing as her lost doll and I didn't want it to be ruined by some cynical twist (see "Tooth Fairy Sonnet"). But it was actually sweet and uplifting in a different way.
- "The Semmelweis Opera": The genial storytelling that Gerstler achieves in a few pages in this prose poem is something that I wish more authors would take inspirations from. *looking at [b:The Liar's Dictionary|53284801|The Liar's Dictionary|Eley Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594618149l/53284801._SX50_.jpg|64196454]*
- "The Feminine Art of Quilting"
- "Black Coat"
- "Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope": I love the dreamy phrasing of "the wet silver/ of Poseidon's eyes."
Thrall: Poems by Natasha Trethewey
5.0
I highly recommend reading this poetry collection with the interview of the poet published on World Literature Today. I didn't know that Natasha Trethewey’s father was also a poet, nor had I read her previous works; it would have been harder to notice the subtexts if I hadn’t read the article. But even without reading the article first, one can readily recognize common phrases and motifs scattered throughout thrall that give the collection a certain sense of coherence dedicated to her (white) father. I’m eager to read other published works of Trethewey.
My favorites:
- "Elegy" (the first poem)
- "Illumination" (the last poem)
- "Knowledge"
- "Enlightenment"
- "Fouled"
- "Rotation"
- "Thrall"
- "The Americans"
My favorites:
- "Elegy" (the first poem)
- "Illumination" (the last poem)
- "Knowledge"
- "Enlightenment"
- "Fouled"
- "Rotation"
- "Thrall"
- "The Americans"