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The Weather in Normal
In her collection The Weather in Normal, Carrie Etter laments the loss of her hometown of Normal, Illinois through the death of her parents, the sale of the family home, and the effects of climate change on Illinois' landscape and lives. The author's restlessly inventive use of multiple tones, shifting line lengths, and fresh turns of phrase are as much a means of conveying complex and paradoxical emotions as they are a determined formal strategy to avoid clich�. Shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her last collection, Imagined Sons, Etter has built a following based on her highly original and deeply emotive poetry.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 2, 2020
[rating = A-]
One of my: Best Books of the Year (for 2020)
This is the second collection I've read by Carrie Etter, and it is just as good as her last (Imagined Sons). I love the use of language and the style really made use of white space as a place to breathe. These poems discuss her father's death and her hometown, Normal, in Illinois. She also discusses the weather and brings this into relation with her life and her dad in a smart and sharp turns of phrases. However, there were a few poems that did not seem as strong as the others. However (again), the penultimate, long poem "Scar" was brilliant and really showed her powers of minimalism at work. There were lovely, simple images and pairings of weather and emotion. Just a strong collection altogether. Carrie Etter is a charming and quiet poet that deserves more attention.
One of my: Best Books of the Year (for 2020)
This is the second collection I've read by Carrie Etter, and it is just as good as her last (Imagined Sons). I love the use of language and the style really made use of white space as a place to breathe. These poems discuss her father's death and her hometown, Normal, in Illinois. She also discusses the weather and brings this into relation with her life and her dad in a smart and sharp turns of phrases. However, there were a few poems that did not seem as strong as the others. However (again), the penultimate, long poem "Scar" was brilliant and really showed her powers of minimalism at work. There were lovely, simple images and pairings of weather and emotion. Just a strong collection altogether. Carrie Etter is a charming and quiet poet that deserves more attention.
Displaying 1 of 1 review