Loveliest Grotesque

by Sandra Lim

Poetry. "LOVELIEST GROTESQUE is a darkly fascinating book. It's a sweet, shape-shifting creature and a fun postmodern romp. Page after page fills with energetic surprises, keeping the reader intrigued—formal quatrains juxtaposed against prose vignettes... short-line riffs against skinny sonnets against a ballad that spreads across the page against a pantoum with the word "orient" in it. Finally, the slippery slope of too much fun might stop for a nano moment to contemplate an important existential "Why were there manatees at all?" Obviously, the answer is after 9/11, in the new millennium, all formal discourses must explode, splinter and fragment and coalesce again into a stunning, new voice."—Marilyn Chin

Genres: Poetry

59 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few moments here and there were worthwhile, but mostly I found this collection unrelatable and inaccessible throughout. The poems are very self-conscious, but not in a warm contemplative navel-gazing way, which I often enjoy. Instead, it felt as if Lim was actually trying to write in a guarded way to keep the reader at bay. Even if she wasn't trying, that was the result for me.

[RD Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard incredibly faint echos of Suzanne Wise's The Kingdom of the Subjunctive in Lim's collection. However: while Wise's poetry creeps up on you in a dark alley and punches you in the gut, Lim's brushes past you on a crowded subway platform rather forgettably.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think she said it best herself - "Uncomely juvenilia".

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One of Sandra Lim’s great strengths is the ability to intrigue the reader with energetic word play. The poems in this debut demonstrate a willingness to experiment with forms ranging from pantoums to prose poems, to use nouns as verbs, as in the line “I carrot them with caramels” (p. 55), to borrow French phrases, to rhyme, and to surprise us with assertions: “I’m a bandit gripping / hard on the steal” (p.19).

Domestic images including a pineapple-shaped cutting board, pins, a hot iron, and a garlic press are equally at home with references to Wittgenstein, Ahkmatova, Bovary, Pépé Le Pew and classic Hollywood stars. These are the poems of a mind traversing a rich landscape in search of that boundary between the self and the world..."

Full review at Cutbank, Monday, February 18, 2008 post:


http://cutbankpoetry.blogspot.com/

[Saba Razvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several of these poems were incredibly good. Many of them stayed with me throughout the day and I read through the collection twice without getting bored or restless. More on this later, but this is a good book of poems with a resonant sensibility.

[elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sandra's poems are erudite and sexy. And I'd feel shameless if I said more, as I adore this girl as much as her words.

[Yumiko Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved Sandra's poetry! and I know her! :)

[Hafizah · Rating 5 out of 5]

top three. makes you want to be smarter.