mckaley

Sharon olds writes hauntingly and with such control! I love so many of her poems and I definitely want to read more of her work. Did feel a bit conflicted about her poems about her father and the sexual undertones. Couldn’t find any details about that.

Has all the things I look for in a novel. So many life isms to take away from it. A creative and unexpected way to put a novel together. The prose is a delight and I was moved to tears by the twist at the end. If you’ve experienced loss you must read this. Akbar deals with and romantic love with each care, it’s quiet and always there. It’s in the moment you don’t think of. It has the feelings of myth.

my favorite essays were in the personals section, and the final essay “goodbye to all that.” i think often times i had no idea what she was talking about but i completely have the understanding that she is so intelligent and detailed in her observations. I think my issue was she would often put us into a scenario and as I didn’t live through the 60s and honestly don’t know a lot about the 60s. I had no idea who she was talking about, so I’d start very lost in her work.

so much love and sorrow. i’m completely moved by these poems, so many I liked I can’t give my normal list. It makes me think of my own family, my aunt who cares for our sick. Spectacular words, words that move me, words I don’t want to ever forget

if this book was a painting, it would be more of a semi realist painting over an abstract one, and i tend to lend towards more abstract poetry. i think for my this book used the word beautiful too many times. I liked the poem wishbone and I very much liked the context provided in the afterword. I’m interested to see how his work matured after this, so I’ll be reading more from him, but this one just wasn’t for me.