Isolato

by Larissa Szporluk, Larissa Szporluck

This collection of short lyric poems evoke certain themes: interaction of and struggle between the human and natural world; violence, particularly against women and children; alienation and betrayal; the mysteries of the universe, God and death; and poetry itself.

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

Larissa Szporluk was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan and earned degrees at the University of Michigan, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns fellow. Her books of poetry include Dark Sky Question (1998), which won the Barnard Poetry Prize; Isolato (2000), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; The Wind, Master Cherry, the Wind (2003); Embryos and Idiots (2007); and Traffic with Macbeth (2011). She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and currently teaches at Bowling Green State University.

Reviews

[Joshua Gage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich collection of poems. Szporluk touches on some religious themes without being preachy or didactic, and her poems are well crafted with layered imagery and thick metaphorical language. At times the poems got a bit too dense for my taste, but overall this was a superb collection and one that I will probably return to.

[Margarete Maneker · Rating 5 out of 5]

feels like this came into my life at the time it was most meant to.

szporluk’s diction and cadence meet playful syntax and enjambment to limn a world peopled with mothers, lionesses, fish. the collection takes one from dark lunar fields to midnight pools, all the while synthesizing loss/pain/selfishness/pride etc. with a raw, authentic candor…and it’s bolstered by this lush world building and mystery that suffuses the feeling in abstraction and imagery without needing to be explained, only felt.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is actually a very large arc in this book, involving the repossession of identity after separating from a relationship. I truly admire the "seven maria" series, in their gesture to meditate on a region of the moon named as a sea, perhaps because it looks so full from this distance, but in the factual absence of water gives rise to the thoughts of loss and what was. Very nice. Very measured poems.

[Via · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this as a high school sophomore, and it's never left my mind since.

[Molly Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poetry books, Isolato is deeply moving and thought provoking. One I read again and again, as each read reveals something else. Profoundly spiritual and religious and elusive.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the second section - "SEven Maria" for reasons already put forth by other reviewers in a much more eloquent manner than I could manage.

Otherwise, this is not my favorite Szporluk collection, though I still find her words intriguing.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good poems, but the book doesn't approach the quality of Dark Sky Question.

[Gary McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larissa rocks even harder.

[Brian Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

love it, love it, love. that is what i learned to do.

[Kate Birgel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite poet

[Hannah Sanders]

Recommended by Adrian, June 15th 2010

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

review here: http://booksandbowelmovements.wordpre...