Infidelities

by Elise Paschen

Book by Paschen, Elise

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 1996

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elise Paschen is a brilliant poet!

One of her best collections...

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one more or less out of obligation. It was a chore to read and I'm sure it was a chore to write. There are times when the collection seems to cohere and the pieces seem to be commenting on each other--but it happens once or twice, fleetingly, over a course of seventy-six pages. And the individual poems seem like textbook-worthy example of workshop poems. You get mentions of things like the Confederacy or mythological creatures or American Indians but it's all superficial.

[Punk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poetry. This just isn't my kind of poetry. The subject matter never engaged me, the writing's cryptic, and many of the poems have a sing-songy character to them that turns me off. I did like "Angling," which was about fishing, or possibly about dating men; there weren't enough clues to pick it apart.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Love Spell" is one of my favorites! Some of the poems were a bit too cryptic for me, I wasn't sure how they fit into the whole infidelity theme? It's interesting how she plays with not only marital infidelity, but draws in themes of family issues also.