A sumptuous poetic romp through Italy.
Hill’s poetry collection traverses both the physical and intangible landscapes of Italy.
Italy is a feast for the senses in every aspect, from the food to the language to the clothes to the way the cobblestones feel underfoot. The author understands this, and her poems aim to, as she puts it, convey a “sense of being utterly enchanted…stuffed inside a satchel of American cynicism.” The poems fall into six categories largely delineated by geography; most of the verses have an epistolary quality. The poems’ speakers traverse the country’s landmarks and attractions, such as the Keats-Shelley house, the Domitilla catacombs, and the northern city of Bolzano. Hill celebrates these places with visceral esteem, using tactile images to convey textured experiences: “Stone / walls still held the warmth of afternoon sun…sweet perfume / of mountain elderflower, fresh green mint” (“Hugo”). The outsider/tourist perspective intercuts with evocations of what life may look like for locals, including nuns, blacksmiths, and the elderly. Hill plays with form, weaving in old styles like the sonnet and sestina with her largely free-verse works (some are even in Italian, with translations). The clear reverence for Italy does not undermine humor; one section, “Learning Italian,” tackles the tribulations of learning a new tongue and includes a jab at the language learning app Duolingo and its bizarre sample phrases (“The penguin eats fruit in the zoo”). Hill captures many small moments beyond the typical travel brochure epiphanies, ruminating on the gravitas of simply walking down the street, the beauty of “small green lizards, / red butterflies and dragonflies,” and the viciousness of a winding road. The poems reflect the introspection and self-awareness of a transient presence while commemorating everything from sprawling mountains to a simple glass of limoncello. Though there are some awkward phrases here and there, the collection largely succeeds in creating an immersive and beguiling reading experience.
A sumptuous poetic romp through Italy.Pub Date: July 18, 2024
ISBN: 9798322610588
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
