An unflinching collection of poems from a bold literary voice.
Reyes presents a collection of poems exploring race.
The political is personal in this poetry collection that focuses on issues of race and the poet’s own identity as a Black Nuyorican woman. Reyes begins by contrasting a letter from Frederick Douglass, in which he praises the Irish’s treatment of him, with her own experience of racism as she traveled from England to Ireland. In “On the ghettoization of childless women,” she observes that “Life is shorter & narrower than it should be for / those of us not meant for your social security.” In “séance at the Beauty Parlor,”she compares Black women who use relaxer to elephants evolving to lose their tusks. Reyes incorporates research into her poems, sharing that at least 40% of White households in New York included a slave in 1711, as well as a New York Timesstatistic citing the alarming death rate of BIPOC women due to pregnancy-related causes. The author includes several visual elements, including victim sketches by the prolific serial killer, Samuel Little, as well as a copy of the 14th United States census circa 1920. Throughout the book, Reyes rails against marginalization and censorship by “well-meaning white folks.” But weariness seems to set in by the end: “Do you ever stop / & wonder what you too lost / Or nah, it’s cool here” (“ghost thought”). The author plays with form—even the color of the text—to suggest truth fading away. The writing is as clever as it is complex: In “The crow is barking up a storm,”the author writes, “Five black males talk, / they call it a murder.” Her descriptions strike a delicate balance between beauty and brutality, such as the “Crimson-black grapes” that “hang taut before / the harvesting / flame” that are part of the “cruel horticulture” of winemaking (“Paradise as tinder”).Reyes deftly combines historical fact with modern cultural touchstones such as director Tim Burton and the 23&Me DNA testing service. She also includes QR codes that link to YouTube readings of her work. The chaotic narrative could make some readers feel overwhelmed and unmoored—this may be the poet’s intention.
An unflinching collection of poems from a bold literary voice.Pub Date: April 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781632431196
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Omnidawn
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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