Without: Body, Name, Country

by Meg Johnson

In Meg Johnson’s third full length collection, Without: Body, Name, Country, strange experiences become familiar and familiar experiences become strange as a human body, a sense of self, and an entire nation all teeter toward the verge of destruction.

In daring poems and intimate flash nonfiction pieces, Johnson portrays a world that is corrupt yet full of possibilities. Sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, one woman’s struggles with health, identity, and politics reveal universal adversity, longing, and wildness.

Reading this book is to climb “a spiral staircase in a tower full of fun house mirrors.” Without: Body, Name, Country is the book you didn’t know you needed.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Health

63 pages, ebook

First published September 15, 2020

About the author

Meg Johnson is the author of the books Inappropriate Sleepover (The National Poetry Review Press, 2014), The Crimes of Clara Turlington (Vine Leaves Press, 2015), and Without: Body, Name, Country (Vine Leaves Press, 2020). Her poetry has appeared in Hobart, Nashville Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Puritan, Sugar House Review, Verse Daily, and others. Her nonfiction has appeared in Bust Magazine, The Good Men Project, Ms. Magazine, and others. Meg started dancing at a young age and worked professionally in the performing arts for many years. She received her MFA from the NEOMFA Program and has taught writing at various colleges. She is the editor of Dressing Room Poetry Journal and has served as an external reviewer for University of Akron Press. She was recently writer-in-residence at Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts. Her website is: www.megjohnson.org

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving poetry about the experience the author has with Gillian Barre Syndrome. Candid.

[Joanne Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg Johnson’s third book of poetry, Without: Body, Name, Country, is a gem. Rough cut, full of sparkles and innumerable facets. Hold it up to the light, spin and gaze. You’ll find yourself delighted and returning again and again to the surprise and power of her words. That power includes a spot-on sense of humor evident from page one onward. In the collection’s first poem, “I Am a Midwestern Winter” she describes her collection of space heaters and growing up wearing a tutu over snow pants. Make no mistake though, Johnson is deadly serious, her humor only a sly opening to poetry and short nonfiction that challenges the status quo and tackles the sacred. She circles her own themes returning again and then one more time to investigate what it is to grow up pretty, to remain single after thirty, to face life-altering illness. There is a luster, a brilliance that grows throughout the collection with her keen attention not only to detail, but to the motivations of those around her.

[Karyn H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emotional and Thought-Provoking

There is no doubt that the author did a great job in these 63 pages of pure literature. Without: Body, Name, Country is a collection of poetry and dialogues that reflect purely on the author's state of mind at different times.
There is a vast collection of poems, which range from short poems to long ones. Meg Johnson’s perception of the world around her and her powerful presentation of ideas is very commendable. Without: Body, Name, Country contains fragments of flash fictions that take us further into understanding the author’s state of mind.
Meg takes us into her life to make us understand what it feels like to live with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Most of her life and works are clear reflections of what she feels inside.
Again, Meg undoubtedly has proven that she is different. Honestly, her works directly stir up something deep down about my younger self. The way I perceive life then and now.
I find this book an exciting and compelling book with a lot of lessons to teach. Meg is a living proof that with strong determination, one can overcome any condition. She used this book as an avenue to talk to us more precisely.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg Johnson’s new poetry collection, “Without: Body, Name, Country,” is a memoir of implosion, and subsequent resurrection, told from a staccato beginning to a lyrical end.

Starting with short, explosively irreverent poems, Johnson describes an idyllic youth of beauty and talent — as a dancer, budding poet, precocious thinker — all tainted by the lasciviousness that follows visual appeal. Then her poetry gradually lengthens into prose poetry, then straight micro-narratives, as we see that perfect world crumble with her diagnosis of Guillam-Barre syndrome in which a person’s immune system attacks the nerves.

Her purposely blunt wording fully conveys the collapse of her world as her ability to walk wains. Frustration, fatigue, the fight to move again: all move toward a rebirth, that while imperfect, offers the peace of accepting how her body and spirit have changed.

An excellent read!

[Rachel Kester · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the third collection of stories and poems by author Meg Johnson. The pieces are designed to captivate your attention by focusing on themes such as the human body, self-identity, and longing. All of the pieces are well-written and include beautiful descriptions and imagery that will capture your imagination and, for many, are very relatable. Besides pieces based on her life, Johnson touches on politics and social causes. Her pieces on these topics are creative and provide an interesting light on them. All of the works are broken up into two different sections: Vaudeville and Diagnosis. The pieces are written in different lengths so there is a nice variation in them.

Keep in mind there are a few adult themes in the collection. If you’re not comfortable with that, you might want to consider reading something else.

At 63 pages, it’s somewhat short making it perfect for someone who wants something quick yet intriguing.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Meg Johnson takes deep and meaningful prose to a new level in Without: Body, name, Country. Full of poems and starkly honest short essays, this book will certainly make you reflect upon your own childhood, and your own preconceived notions about life. Broken down into two main areas, the poems range form short to longer pieces and range in topics from “This New Normal”, to” growing up too fast”. She even touches upon her life with Guillain-Barre syndrome and how it affects so much of what she does in the most unexpected ways.
While not normally one for poetry, the short stories the author included in this book expand upon it all and make me feel connected to the authors story in that I can see so much of my younger self in her words. I think the thoughtfulness this book will provoke within a reader will make it a favorite book as a go-to to reflect upon life.

[Jimmy Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of poetry and writings.

This is a nice collection of poetry and writings that will pull your attention to each of the topics covered. From the human body to politics and more , these writings will bring out your thoughts and emotions as you read each word. Colorful and filled with promise, this is a good collection and worthy of your time to absorb the beauty found within. Please check out these poems and let me know your opinion.

[Hazel]

This was a very good book. A new author for me
So I’m going to check out all the other to read.
Read it it’s diffrent and enjoyable.

[Prince Mendax · Rating 1 out of 5]

det här är inte poesi och omslaget är jättefult.

[A.J. White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got it as an ARC from a giveaway. It was a quick read.

[Pegboard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without: Body, Name, Country by Meg Johnson is comprised of two parts. First part includes what I would consider, free verse poems. I see no rules to her thoughts as she gives us a glimpse into her reflections. The second part is short dialogs about her diagnosis of Guillain-Barre. Growing up she has always been different in some area. This awful disease sets her back in many different areas of her life.

I found Without: Body, Name, Country quite crude. Meg Johnson is unabashed in her subjects.
The second part, Diagnosis, is firsthand experience of the disease Guillain-Barre. She is open with her experience and reactions she received from others. I was fascinated with the fact she would smell like others after she received treatments.

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without: Body, Name, Country presents poems and flash creative nonfiction that explore identity, illness, and politics. Broken into two parts, the first section offers poems that explore various personas, while the second presents memoir the author's experience with a harrowing illness in the form of short, evocative flash pieces. Lovely work.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, modern collection of poems including particularly insightful poems Re living with chronic illness

[BookishStitcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A goal of mine this year is to get a lot of books off of my TBR so I'm starting the year off reading a bunch of poetry. This is my first for the year. It was good. Meg Johnson writes about her experience with a long-term illness. I learned a lot of new things from this collection.

[Sian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
My full review is on my blog
https://quirkybookreads.wordpress.com...

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites are I Am My Own Planet, Sincerely, And For Perfume I Use Shellac, and What Is Male Entitlement. Part 1 is joyously irreverent poetry and part 2 are her reflections on an illness. Love the first part.

[Emily Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. At times it is laugh-out-loud funny, but it is also frequently painful. The writer, a poet, notices and notes everything about how aspects of her life (being single, being a poet, being female, having a health crisis) rasp gratingly against the confines of our culture's expectations. Oddly, this jarring dissonance, worked through on the page provides a window into the grace of a dancer's mind.
Very fast read, and well worth it.

[Sara (onourshelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong collection about chronic pain/disease and life

[Matthew Wentworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part I, which included what I consider to be actual poetry, wasn't bad at all. There were a few poems that I thought were genuinely thoughtful and well developed.

Part II, if considered actual poetry, is not something that I particularly cared for. It felt more like reading a non-fiction essay with page breaks and titles between paragraphs. I acknowledge that this was a difficult period in her life, and I also feel like was nothing really poetic about the way that her experience was described. Johnson clearly knows how to write; I just felt like there was a lot left on the table here.