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In My Father's House: Poems
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March 12, 2012
I bought this book at AWP after it came recommended as an accessible book of poetry. As some of you may know, I've been working to "get" poetry, though I know that's probably not the word I should use. I don't mean "get" however in terms of "understand what it means" but rather "understand what it is, why people like it, and why it exists as a genre." If that sounds too harsh, well, I figure that's my failing as a writer rather than the failings as a genre.
Anyway, for the first time while reading a collection of poetry, I had some sort of emotional response other than frustration. I still don't have my answer after reading this collection, but I do feel closer—like maybe there is some sort of answer to arrive at after all (though certainly not one that can be easily spelled out).
I would have given this book four stars for that alone, however, the typesetting, or copyediting, or something was...not right. The mistakes were rare enough that I'm pretty confident putting the "l" of "like" on one line and the "ike" on the next was not the author's stylistic choice. Also, the space would often be missing between two words or a letter would be missing in addition to random letters on the wrong line. These mistakes did seem to get more numerous as the collection went on, and by the end, the familiar feeling of frustration had returned to me, because sometimes it was so bad I had to work for half a minute or so just to decipher one word.
Anyway, for the first time while reading a collection of poetry, I had some sort of emotional response other than frustration. I still don't have my answer after reading this collection, but I do feel closer—like maybe there is some sort of answer to arrive at after all (though certainly not one that can be easily spelled out).
I would have given this book four stars for that alone, however, the typesetting, or copyediting, or something was...not right. The mistakes were rare enough that I'm pretty confident putting the "l" of "like" on one line and the "ike" on the next was not the author's stylistic choice. Also, the space would often be missing between two words or a letter would be missing in addition to random letters on the wrong line. These mistakes did seem to get more numerous as the collection went on, and by the end, the familiar feeling of frustration had returned to me, because sometimes it was so bad I had to work for half a minute or so just to decipher one word.
Displaying 1 of 1 review