Monday 31 December 2018

Crush by Richard Siken


Crush by Richard Siken
Published in America by Yale University Press in April 2005.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Hands

How I got this book:
Downloaded for free via On The Other Side Of Reality

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Richard Siken's Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking. In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Gluck hails the "cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness" of Siken's poems. She notes, "Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form."

Crush was enthusiastically reviewed at On The Other Side Of Reality as 'one of my all-time favorite poetry collections' so I was keen to experience Siken's work for myself. Crush isn't a particularly long book and I comfortably read it in an evening, however I am not sure I successfully understood what I read! Even the poems I revisited are cloudy. I appreciate Siken's use of graphic imagery and the repetitive structure of some of the phrases where their meaning is subtly altered as the poem progresses. Overall though reading Crush felt like eavesdropping on a conversation in a language in which I am only partially fluent. Sometimes I had flashes of clarity and felt I could envisage just what Siken had written about. Most of the time I felt as though the meaning was just out of reach. I got the gist, but completely missed the nuances. A shame


Etsy Find!
by Boutique Poetry in
London, England

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Books by Richard Siken / Poetry / Books from America

Monday 24 December 2018

Betwixt by Evie Gaughan + #FreeBook


Betwixt by Evie Gaughan
Published by Little Bird Press in August 2015.

How I got this book:
Downloaded from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An atmospheric short story by bestselling author, Evie Gaughan.
Catherine returns to Hollowbrook Cottage on a cold November night, looking to escape her present life and lose herself in the past. However, her journey crosses the path of a mysterious stranger who will change her life forever.

This is a great little creepy story for Christmas Eve. It is just thirty-six pages long, but within those pages Gaughan creates a suitably tense atmosphere. There obviously isn't much space for characterisation, but I still felt I had plenty of detail with which to imagine Mrs Donnelly, Catherine, and the mysterious stranger. I loved Gaughan portrayal of the rainswept night through which Catherine drives and the damp little holiday cottage that is her destination. I already had a pretty good idea of the outline of Betwixt so its denouement wasn't a surprise to me, but I was impressed and captivated by how Gaughan took us there.

Etsy Find!
by Easy To Remember Design in
the USA

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Books by Evie Gaughan / Short stories / Books from Ireland

Tuesday 11 December 2018

Watching Aliens by Elancharan Gunasekaran + #FreeBook


Watching Aliens by Elancharan Gunasekaran
Self published in Singapore in September 2016.

Featured in WorldReads: Singapore

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook via Smashwords

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


'Watching Aliens is beautifully spread across 500 pages. The work is a combination of short and full-length poetry. A versatile collection that embodies the observation of humans. Actions, feelings and situations that may seem so alien to us are in fact, things so common. We humans, in this digital age have lost what is commonly known as, personal touch. Watching Aliens, is inspired by Jack Kerouac's modern haikus and the need for an inclusive society in this current age of rapid modernisation.

Reading through Watching Aliens was an unusual poetry experience for me because the work itself is mostly written as a series of haiku, three to a page. Some appear to be linked together over several pages to create a longer work on a single theme, others provide just a glimpse or a snapshot of the poet's thought before he moves on - almost stream of consciousness writing. These haiku are not titled and they flow without a break in long chapters until, occasionally, I was surprised by a single long poem. I have taken screenshots of each poetry style to show what I mean:


The work reminded me, strangely, of Rust Is A Form Of Fire by Joe Fiorito although it is so long since I read that book that I can't now put my finger on why I connected the two! I think it is the sense I felt of detachedly watching human action and interaction from the perspective of an outside observer. Watching Aliens has an almost hypnotic rhythm and often quite abstract imagery which focuses on feelings and emotions rather than physical sensations or visual descriptions. I couldn't always identify with Gunasekaran's observations - and sometimes failed to understand his meaning at all - but generally I felt I could appreciate the work. He explores social themes such as the treatment of migrant workers and homelessness, as well as personal feelings of love and relationships. I liked the breadth of subjects and Gunasekaran's ability to flow from one to another. Watching Aliens also includes a series of striking monochrome artworks, I believe as chapter markers, and these are fascinating. Most are simply created yet impart strong emotions and provide a breathing point for the reader.


Etsy Find!
by Azure Allure in
Birmingham, England

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Books by Elancharan Gunasekaran / Poetry / Books from Singapore