A contemplative collection of poetry that captures both the pain and pleasure of all kinds of love.
Stevenson’s slim poetry book explores the exquisite pain of love and loss.
The opening poem, “Je t’aime,” chronicles the peak, and subsequent downfall, of a relationship. Stevenson offers advice like “Stay away / From the amphitheater of fear” in “Being Is So Extensive.” “I Never Suspected” confronts aging and mortality. Nature and the absence of loved ones merge in “The Whiffling Wind.” The speaker’s mother, who died from lung disease, is the subject of “Once Upon a Time My Mother Mattered,” whose narrative takes a strange, incestuous turn. The drama continues in “Mama Cry, No Cry” as a father’s death upends the family dynamic. The author mulls over a missed connection at a train station in Switzerland in “What Was the Name.” A romantic reunion is the focus of “Is It Possible?” In “There’s No Point,” “The wanting of things of sex or power or women” is renounced in favor of the simple pleasure of breathing. When an unequal love becomes unbearable, the speaker “withdrew to the basic grammar of a solitude” in “I Write the Song.” “My Equestrian Event” is a shocking story of rape at a Kentucky racetrack. Stevenson’s descriptions of desire are visceral and unique, “from a beautiful thirst to a yearning mouth” to the way a whisper proclaiming love “slowly scars into a scream.” He weaves nature seamlessly into his poems, describing everything from a “forest of shadows” and “an echo of trees” to “darkness stabbed with stars.” Some of the metaphors miss the mark, however, such as, “The spilled emotional milk flecked with blood / The jar of sexual joy smashed to smithereens.” But other turns of phrase are so gorgeous one must pause to appreciate them: “accept the monstrous / Beauty of just being here.” Stevenson’s writing style is accessible and streamlined and will appeal to many readers regardless of their experience with poetry.
A contemplative collection of poetry that captures both the pain and pleasure of all kinds of love.Pub Date: July 10, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A sweet bedtime story.
A boy and his stuffed bear head into the woods.
Having captured readers’ attention with Born a Crime (2016), his bestselling memoir of growing up in South Africa, comedian and television host Noah has written a parable about decision-making. As he puts it in a brief prologue, “It’s about disagreements and difference—but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbors, gnomes, or political adversaries. It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids.” With plentiful illustrations by Hahn and in language aimed at young listeners, it tells the story of a small boy so impatient to start his Saturday adventures that he rebels against the rules of his household and heads out without brushing his teeth or making his bed, despite the reminders of his stuffed bear, Walter. “We can’t just run away,” protests the bear. “Your mother will miss you. And where will we sleep? And who will make us waffles?” “We’ll build our own house,” the boy responds. “And we’ll grow our own waffles!” From there, the pair go on their walkabout, encountering a garden gnome, a pair of snails, and a gang of animated coins who have lessons to offer about making choices. Though the author suggests in the introduction that adult readers might enjoy the book on their own, those looking for a follow-up to the memoir or a foray into adult fiction should be warned that this is not that book.
A sweet bedtime story.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593729960
Page Count: 128
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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