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Great Exodus, Great Wall, Great Party
Winner of the 2020 APR/Honickman First Book Prize, Chessy Normile’s debut collection, Great Exodus, Great Wall, Great Party, asks what would happen if we actually believed language to be a creative force that constructs our lived experience. Though “hope” is something we assign to the future, these poems disrupt time in order to be hopeful about the past. They could be funny all the time, but often choose not to be in the critical moment, using humor to become more vulnerable rather than less. Chessy Normile’s poetry is, according to Li-Young Lee, “smart, curious, original, and authentically weird.”
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published September 8, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 7, 2022
i don't know if i'd stand behind my goodreads rating and claim every poem is a 4-star poem, but this is one hell of a book, and this is what i got right now, with the limited lexicon of goodreads, as far as tools of description go. and i've also got the itch to talk about this book real bad right now, so here we go.
i first encountered chessy normile's poems in the american poetry review about a year ago. i liked them a lot, but didn't think i was going to seek out her collection. i saw her read a month ago and instantly changed my mind, and now i'm trying to come up with words to tell you how this book cracked something open for me. in grad school i had this one teacher who read my poems and told me i was holding something back, and i didn't understand what she meant at the time. she asked me if i often make dark jokes with my friends, and i said how the hell did you know that just from reading my entirely not-funny poems. at the time, i couldn't really imagine what a funny poem---like, not a poem *trying* to be funny or cute, or a clever poem---an *actual* funny poem might look like. i knew i was sometimes very funny, and i knew i also wrote a lot of Serious Poems, and my jokes and poems were always about the same things, yet the mere suggestion that those two modes of expression might be able to coexist was something i had never considered before, and didn't know that i could find my way to.
chessy normile seems to have been born there. and this book to me feels like the roadmap i fell short of imagining. i feel lucky it fell into my hands by chance, when i hadn't previously planned on reading it, and a little bit like i'm getting away with something, which is a fun thing for a poem to make me feel. these aren't "just funny poems"; they are written with such a sly intelligence and skill that it almost feels like sleight-of-hand, but not the kind of sleight-of-hand where i feel like the poet is trying to make me feel dumb and/or show me how smart they think they are, a kind of sleight-of-hand that leaves me a little breathless, laughing a little with disbelief, like i've just witnessed an act of magic. i don't normally enjoy magicians, but now i'm imagining that this must be how the people who do must feel. like you've just witnessed another human being showing you that there's a wider range of possibilities than you'd thought before, and what's more, they're inviting you to the party too.
i first encountered chessy normile's poems in the american poetry review about a year ago. i liked them a lot, but didn't think i was going to seek out her collection. i saw her read a month ago and instantly changed my mind, and now i'm trying to come up with words to tell you how this book cracked something open for me. in grad school i had this one teacher who read my poems and told me i was holding something back, and i didn't understand what she meant at the time. she asked me if i often make dark jokes with my friends, and i said how the hell did you know that just from reading my entirely not-funny poems. at the time, i couldn't really imagine what a funny poem---like, not a poem *trying* to be funny or cute, or a clever poem---an *actual* funny poem might look like. i knew i was sometimes very funny, and i knew i also wrote a lot of Serious Poems, and my jokes and poems were always about the same things, yet the mere suggestion that those two modes of expression might be able to coexist was something i had never considered before, and didn't know that i could find my way to.
chessy normile seems to have been born there. and this book to me feels like the roadmap i fell short of imagining. i feel lucky it fell into my hands by chance, when i hadn't previously planned on reading it, and a little bit like i'm getting away with something, which is a fun thing for a poem to make me feel. these aren't "just funny poems"; they are written with such a sly intelligence and skill that it almost feels like sleight-of-hand, but not the kind of sleight-of-hand where i feel like the poet is trying to make me feel dumb and/or show me how smart they think they are, a kind of sleight-of-hand that leaves me a little breathless, laughing a little with disbelief, like i've just witnessed an act of magic. i don't normally enjoy magicians, but now i'm imagining that this must be how the people who do must feel. like you've just witnessed another human being showing you that there's a wider range of possibilities than you'd thought before, and what's more, they're inviting you to the party too.
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December 22, 2025The final poem was it for me
June 11, 2025
i’m not into poetry, but this book lowkey slapped
February 1, 2021
This poet has a masterful command of voice. While utterly enchanted by its uniqueness, I also kept thinking of Frank O’Hara and Chen Chen (buoyancy), Jennifer Knox (humor), and Paige Lewis and Heather Christie (ecstatic delight in external objects). Incredible collection.
October 28, 2022
I think this is the first poetry book I've read fully of my own volition. I usually get upset by poetry books because it feels like a lot of work to unravel meaning-- this feeling started in high school when I believed that all poetry was just a mean-hearted riddles intentionally made to be difficult to comprehend--
but Chessy writes in a way that feels contemporary and unpretentious, it reminds me of my own writing which is inherently interesting to me haha. There's enough grounding, some poems read like texts to a friend (arguably the best form of writing, as I believe julie has said too), there's presence and silliness/delight and also processing difficulty all in the same swoop.
She has an inspirational way of laughing at herself/life without feeling self-deprecating. I savored being in her light-hearted world, light-hearted but still dense/important somehow, like this artist Sal Marx who expresses their chronic pain through bright (usually affiliated with joy) colors. Meg said this book reminded her of Agnes Borinsky, which I agree- they both have some special way of pinpointing and expressing the present moment, of whimsical realism.
Really such a pleasure to read, made me feel like writing, thank you meg for the book!!!
Also I often feel alienated when a review references artists I don't know because I'm afraid of being left out so:
-Sal Marx is a friend of a friend who used to live in my current apartment, check out their website https://salmarx.myportfolio.com/about
- Agnes Borinsky is a playwright I've worked with who is a close personal hero! She has a knack for gathering special groups of people and writing good plays. Here's a random bio https://newplayexchange.org/users/353...
but Chessy writes in a way that feels contemporary and unpretentious, it reminds me of my own writing which is inherently interesting to me haha. There's enough grounding, some poems read like texts to a friend (arguably the best form of writing, as I believe julie has said too), there's presence and silliness/delight and also processing difficulty all in the same swoop.
She has an inspirational way of laughing at herself/life without feeling self-deprecating. I savored being in her light-hearted world, light-hearted but still dense/important somehow, like this artist Sal Marx who expresses their chronic pain through bright (usually affiliated with joy) colors. Meg said this book reminded her of Agnes Borinsky, which I agree- they both have some special way of pinpointing and expressing the present moment, of whimsical realism.
Really such a pleasure to read, made me feel like writing, thank you meg for the book!!!
Also I often feel alienated when a review references artists I don't know because I'm afraid of being left out so:
-Sal Marx is a friend of a friend who used to live in my current apartment, check out their website https://salmarx.myportfolio.com/about
- Agnes Borinsky is a playwright I've worked with who is a close personal hero! She has a knack for gathering special groups of people and writing good plays. Here's a random bio https://newplayexchange.org/users/353...
September 20, 2023
my appreciation for this collection crept up on me like a kitten. ya know, how it does the little butt-shake-wind-up before pouncing on your ankles? now i just wanna cuddle with it and feed it treats and show it off to all my friends and be like “see this kitten? fucking awesome kitten. 10/10 kitten.”
November 14, 2023
Holy fuck this was awesome
April 12, 2024
I really enjoy Normile's writing style. The last poem, especially, tied everything together very well.
December 26, 2023
Fantastic and so funny.
September 29, 2022
Normile weaves together humor, informal language and allegory to create a collection that is subtle about its massive, massive depth.
“And all the time I try to see it:
the symmetry breaking,
the sun going down,
the grass, the dirt, the sand, the night,
any of it, I’d take any of it…
show me
just one thing
in it’s wholeness.
No, don’t.”
- “Dissolver”
“And all the time I try to see it:
the symmetry breaking,
the sun going down,
the grass, the dirt, the sand, the night,
any of it, I’d take any of it…
show me
just one thing
in it’s wholeness.
No, don’t.”
- “Dissolver”
December 28, 2024
Quoting someone else's review because it's exactly how I feel, "I don’t think I’m smart enough to really understand half of what I read, but there’s this funny sadness in here."
I was recommended this by a friend of a friend, so it's not something I would typically choose for myself. I like how it would change thoughts throughout a poem, as this is how I think in real time. But sometimes because of this I didn't connect to every poem, hence the 4 stars. But overall enjoyed the read!
AS AN ASTROLOGY GIRLIE. My friend read my tarot last night using the Green Witch's Oracle Deck, and the Mushroom card was pulled, which stumped us a bit due to the location in the spread.
I was caught off guard today reading this, "When your face opens up on the sidewalk and you realize you might die, but still you are not powerless? For instance, maybe in the spot you die a poisonous mushroom could grow and the man who killed you could eat that mushroom." Felt full circle.
I was recommended this by a friend of a friend, so it's not something I would typically choose for myself. I like how it would change thoughts throughout a poem, as this is how I think in real time. But sometimes because of this I didn't connect to every poem, hence the 4 stars. But overall enjoyed the read!
AS AN ASTROLOGY GIRLIE. My friend read my tarot last night using the Green Witch's Oracle Deck, and the Mushroom card was pulled, which stumped us a bit due to the location in the spread.
I was caught off guard today reading this, "When your face opens up on the sidewalk and you realize you might die, but still you are not powerless? For instance, maybe in the spot you die a poisonous mushroom could grow and the man who killed you could eat that mushroom." Felt full circle.
January 10, 2026
Chessy Normile's GREAT EXODUS, GREAT WALL, GREAT PARTY (American Poetry Review), is a collection whose speaker is wide awake to the world, articulating a relationship to humanity, experience, and the self that feels expansive and mutable. These poems are at once spiraling yet matter-of-fact; tender yet subversive; inquisitive yet explanatory; skeptical yet believing; disturbed by and open to the worla. This is truly a book that holds everything. Because isn't everything exactly who we are? 10/10 recommend!
September 18, 2024
I don’t think I’m smart enough to really understand half of what I read, but there’s this funny sadness in here. This feeling of when you keep hinting at something hoping someone will ask you directly so you can finally just spill your guts. You can tell she’s sad, angry, and yet still full of love.
I’m gonna have to keep rereading until I figure it out more. I want to figure it out.
I’m gonna have to keep rereading until I figure it out more. I want to figure it out.
February 3, 2021
I’m trying to think about how to frame this: I loved this book. It felt alive; the perfect blend of offbeat and insightful. I was never bored and I never cringed. Delicate moments and profound ones. Like a moth had a tiny megaphone. Like maybe that’s you and me. Lovely.
April 1, 2024
I’m adding this collection to my mental list of all-time favourite poetry collections. I love Chessy Normile’s style of weird and funny mixed with the devastating. The collection is both emotionally vulnerable and downright hilarious.
December 6, 2024
“One of my fears is humor
Getting in the way of my becoming
What I would like to call now an emotional genius”
I purchased this book after seeing Chrissy at a reading this year. I’ve quickly become a fan of her poetry and cannot wait to see what more of it is released in the future.
Getting in the way of my becoming
What I would like to call now an emotional genius”
I purchased this book after seeing Chrissy at a reading this year. I’ve quickly become a fan of her poetry and cannot wait to see what more of it is released in the future.
November 1, 2020
Laugh, cry, spit up your lunch, and pirouette on a thimble. 😭😭
“OK, there, I feel it.”
It being awe.
“I am a column of loving you.”
You being you.
“OK, there, I feel it.”
It being awe.
“I am a column of loving you.”
You being you.
November 17, 2020
A startling and funny book of heartbreaking poetry. Would thoroughly recommend.
"I am a column of loving you." (46)
"I am a column of loving you." (46)
April 12, 2022
Reminds me of white hipster poetry of 2004/5. No thanks.
April 22, 2022
I don’t usually rate/review poetry on here. But had to do this one. The best poetry collection I have read in years.
May 5, 2022
Love is most definitely a shallow bowl of strawberry milk. I will be thinking about crying, screensavers, and omens for years.
May 24, 2022
Weird, perfect, unexpected. I can't stop thinking about it. One of my favorite finds of the year.
November 14, 2022
I would like to know why it’s called that
December 27, 2022
On the list of books I had to buy my own copy after borrowing. So excellent. Somewhere weird that ain’t confusing
July 2, 2023
Beautiful, snarky, scary… I learned a great deal reading these poems about the importance of infusing the quirks into your writing…
January 19, 2024
One of the best poetry books I have read in recent years.
January 21, 2024
An incredible collection
August 17, 2024
incredible
February 10, 2025
Read aloud on the subway and on my bed
February 27, 2025
One of the best poetry collections I’ve ever read 😭😭😭😭😭 I laughed, I cried and I was constantly surprised by the freshness of every line!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews