Mitochondrial Night

by Ed Bok Lee

Taking mitochondrial DNA as his guide, Lee explores familial and national legacies, and their persistence across shifting boundaries and the erosions of time. In these poems, the trait of an ancestor appears in the face of a newborn, and in her cry generations of women's voices echo. Stories, both benign and traumatic, travel as lore and DNA. Using lush, exact imagery, whether about the corner bar or a hilltop in Korea, Lee is a careful observer, tracking and documenting the way that seemingly small moments can lead to larger insights.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published March 5, 2019

About the author

Bok Lee was raised in South Korea, North Dakota, and Minnesota. He is a former physical education teacher, bartender, journalist, and translator. He holds a Master’s of Fine Arts degree from Brown University, and has shared his work in journals, anthologies, at colleges, and on stages across North American, Europe, and Asia, as well as on public television and radio.

His first book, Real Karaoke People, was a national bestseller in poetry and the winner of a Many Voices Prize, an Asian American Literary Award and a PEN/Open Book Award.

Bok Lee’s second book, Whorled, was released in September 2011 and is one of four finalists for this year’s Minnesota Book Award in the Poetry category. In Whorled, Bok Lee looks toward a global future, one where the dividing lines between state, religion, race, history, and culture have been blurred to the extent that they very idea of difference requires a new understanding. What does it mean to be a Global Citizen in an era of constant war, rampant industrialization, and ever-advancing technology? Whorled strives to give a voice to those left out with words of loss and longing, confrontation and celebration.

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one of those books of poetry with layers that requires rereading.

I most strongly identified with the poems throughout this collection that [re-]rooted us in physical landscape, particularly Minneapolis (which is my hometown). Yet as I moved through this, what was difficult to grasp poetry about science, space, and the metaphysical became something pinging between a present, a past, and so many imaginable futures. I don't think I have even now fully grasped its work as a collection, but the fact that there is so much to dig is a bonus in my book.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and haunting

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I respect the concept of the book and thought, despite it all, it was definitively a book with a clear aim. The poems, for the most part, didn't hit their mark with me but I think they certainly could with others.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the fence with this one. The poems that were most resonant with me were the ones that recounted a history of sorts, recalling the tradition of epic poems. Ed Bok Lee is a skilled narrative poet, balancing the detail with the quietly urgent poetic voice to deliver suckerpunching scenes of Japanese-occupied Korea and the stakes his mother negotiated in her migration to the U.S. Less memorable are most of the other poems, which strove to be "a poet's poems." Evocative language for the sake of language doesn't do much for me (I do love a good line, but for my reading it needs to be rooted in something substantial and not be the mere curtain that closes the scene). Lee's strong use of imagery is potent, but I argue underused in this collection.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this over the course of a few bus rides. Bok Lee uses the idea of the mitochondrial cells to talk about ancestors, the future (both ours and his new daughter’s), and how all of these interact to give us the people we are. Both political and lyrical, and definitely some amazing individual poems. Picked this up from the Coffee House Press sale a while back, definitely worth picking up.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars but I rounded down cause I feel like I would need to be a lot smarter to understand a lot of these poems. He’s obviously a good poet, but it was hard to follow some of these, and it felt like unless you are well versed in scientific lingo you might have trouble understanding some. Maybe I’m just dumb lol

[Jeimy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories that make the author ponder about his identity dissolve into snippets of imagery and coalesce to form the bigger picture in each poem.

Not my cup of tea, but it was an interesting reading experience.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and wild. Definitely recommend.

[Louis Zieja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

He words are magic...thank you for allowing me to dream of a future beyond my future with wonder.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[kazzie ݁ ˖๋ ࣭ ⭑]

when it hit it hit

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an impulse purchase from Coffee House Press when I was ordering Unbearable Splendor. But as soon as I flipped through it I knew I was going to be deeply into this.

With the themes of science, mitochondria, heredity, evolution, emigration, governments, and tyranny, this was really truly and deeply aligned with my interests. The author's parents emigrated from what is now North & South Korea, and a number of the poems reflect on that region's troubled past, but this collection lays bare the sins of America's past (and present) as well, addresses the troubling patterns of the human condition that pop up again and again, here, there, and everywhere.

But this is a collection of duality, and it is infused with hope and wonder as well. I marked down so many poems as favorites.

I really loved this.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is a collection that I really, really want to love but I feel like the physical structure of some of the poems (lots of creative spacing, shapes, etc) gets in the way of the reading. The strongest poems were ones where Lee spoke of fatherhood or his daughter. The final poem, Water in Love, is gorgeous. A few poems (especially one written in Prince’s voice) really didn’t work for me. But all the poems were very narrative, with sweeping story arcs, and I deeply appreciated Lee’s work with those narrative shapes.