Baveuse

by Sara Sutterlin

BAVEUSE – a Québécois expression (feminine singular)

1. wet, drooling, dripping
2. arrogant, cocky, cheeky against authority

Sara Sutterlin’s Baveuse is Ariana Reines meets Eileen Myles meets Mira Gonzalez, and yet, there’s nothing quite like it. Cutting, intelligent, lyrical and sharp, this book should be on everyone’s nightstand and in everyone’s heart.

– Chloe Caldwell, Women

Reading Sara Sutterlin’s poems almost feels like playing Russian Roulette: Every line has the potential to ruin you. Her poetry is sparse, methodical and often centered around small moments of clarity as she struggles to reconcile love, beauty, truth and the desire for safety in a world in which it’s probably wiser to consider all men guilty until proven innocent. This is a work that fully embodies its own slogan: All good art is revenge.

– Guillaume Morissette, New Tab

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

bc i'm giving this one star i felt that i should explain it. i've read other poets who work with equally short/minimal poems, bunny rogers and lora nouk come to mind. i like both of their writing very much, & admire the way they capture complex, evolving emotions with brevity. in comparison these poems were deeply uninteresting, not only bc the emotions expressed were superficial, & lacking sense of deeper self-awareness (i probably place more value in everyday minutia & mundane moments than things that are "meant" to be important so that's not what i'm referring to by superficial), but also bc of the way those superficial emotions were expressed. many of the last stanzas/lines of poems seemed cliched. you get the sense that they are intended to end on a vague/dramatic note, with an important insight to bring the poem to a close but it's funny bc u get lines like this:

"Sometimes eating makes you
hungrier
like violence and love."

"I'll be a
Good Girl
in Hell."

"Sometimes, but rarely,
the Night is fast."

i don't suppose it's an inaccurate assumption to say that the poems in this book indicate the kind of conclusions the author thinks of as cute/smart/important but anyway, they don't appear that way to me

the blurb on the back says "there's nothing quite like it. cutting, intelligent, lyrical and sharp, this book should be on everyone's nightstand and in everyone's heart." exactly the opposite, unfortunately - not particularly sharp or intelligent at all

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

modern minimalist angry cruel beauty and everything I wanna be