Suitor

by Joshua Rivkin

At the heart of Joshua Rivkin's debut collection Suitor is a profound wrestling with desire, history, and the big questions of how we make and perform a self in the world. In conversation with the confessional tradition, Suitor begins with a sequence of poems about a mother's boyfriends and lovers, and how these relationships inform the speaker's own understanding about eros and masculinity. At the center of the book is a lyric essay, "The Haber Problem," that moves beyond the self and personal history to retell the story of the scientist Fritz Haber. Later sequences and poems reflect on the past with erotic directness, longing, and lyric intensity. With grace and honesty, the poems of Suitor ask what it means to be a suitor in the fullest sense—to follow, to pursue, to chase the inexplicable hunger at the heart of desire.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This new collection of poems examines family, and memory, and ultimately forgiveness. The book is divided in two sections with a lyric essay in the middle called “The Hager Problem.” The first section looks at suitors as an observer. The second section is informed by the first, the observer becomes the subject.

I don’t know how to describe poetry without saying raw or visceral or evocative 85 times, so I’ll just say read this book. Is everything context? Is context everything? I took a creative non-fiction class with this writer earlier in the year through Stanford Continuing Studies. It was online, he was somewhere in the east, I was in California, others from around the world. This was one of the best writing classed I’ve ever taken and Josh was one of the best teachers ever. I learned so much and haven’t written anything since, which isn’t the fault of the class, just the context of this year. Losing my father a week before the class started changed my writing, making the need immediate, preventing words from flowing. So much of this collection is about fathers and I can only see it through the lens of loss right now. Anyway, these poems are excellent. If poetry makes you nervous, I think these are easy to read but layered, welcoming rereads without confounding. ★★★★★ • Trade Paperback • Poetry, Essay • Published by Red Hen Press on September 1, 2020. ◾︎

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started and finished this in one setting - a small volume of poems about love, life, and suitors throughout the lives of the author and his mother. The style alternates between short, rapid fire poems and more long form lyrical poetry. The work is thoughtful and interesting without being too abstract. A few lines have stuck with me:

“I tried a language against my own - his. / Problems were now challenges. / A letdown, an opportunity. / The glass isn’t half empty, or half full. / The glass is full, and I will break it / on the kitchen floor if you disagree.”

“The truth is this: We didn’t miss him when he was gone. Not entirely. Life found a rhythm and a pace. It didn’t seem strange, but expected.”

[H]

approaches family in a way we don’t often see—the comparison between the father and haber was especially striking. this might provoke me into writing some poems i’ve been avoiding without realizing it

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probing, thoughtful poems. The poet’s father and a boyfriend of his mother’s are the pebbles in the pond here that inspire broader reflection on his relationships with these men and others, plus bigger questions of science and history. Beautiful work.