A Timeshare

by Margaret Ross

Margaret Ross s debut unearths the corporeal in the most desolate reaches of corporate speech: Futures exchange. Human resources. Personal life.Lush and visceral, A Timeshareknows thatquestions and crises of individual existenceare inextricably bound to shared experience and its deft music carries from the closest closet to outer space, touching the concrete through the metaphysical: it syncs the bed to the ocean, memory to zero-g, voicemail to lyric, killjar, dive bar, Lascaux, Antarctica, living and waiting rooms. What time is it? What s time? Your shadow renders you a human sundial. "Countdown," the book begins."

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2015

Reviews

[Kory Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book of poetry. I did not know words could be arraigned like this, and I’m so glad I spent the time to really dig into this one. Fair warning- some of it is very challenging, but there’s always an emotional and deeply personal resonance to hold on to. I’ve found myself averaging about 30-minutes per poem, with a pencil making marks as I go, really exploring the text, realizing the simultaneity of place and meanings, really thinking about possible context and then suddenly it cracks and the whole poem opens up again. It is certainly not a book to read passively, it’s incredibly rewarding and addictive, but I can only read one or two poems at a time and I read them several times. It’s a book I will live with for a long time and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

I love this quote from the back: “Syntax is above all things the art and craft of time: the master syntactician can shuffle time and stutter it, slow it down and speed it, reverse it, retract it, and delay. This brilliant book introduces Margaret Ross as a syntactical artist of the highest order and degree. ‘A Timeshare’ is more than virtuosic. It surpasses the great masters of the future, and heralds the great masters of the past.” - Eleanor Catton

[Amy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meditation on.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Amie Whittemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I am just not smart enough for it. Or patient enough? Whatever it is, these poems are big and strange and ambitious and I am not enough.

[Kaylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

i never marked this as read for some reason but i've probably read this 100 times

[anon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me about four tries to get past the first 2 poems. Form really turned me off bc I guess I'm a lazy shit and the long syntax and dense stanzas were tough for me without enough payoff it felt like. Fifth try, I got past and was very rewarded!!! There's some absolute bangers in here, especially in the third section. Ross is so smart and observant and I'm really excited for next book.