An often affecting book of poems about modern romance.
Relationships are a source of bitterness and occasional bliss in this collection of confessional verse.
In these 82 short poems, Daryl-Jarod addresses the failings and betrayals of his gay speakers’ boyfriends and hookups, as well as their own inner demons, in direct, plainspoken language and imagery. For example, “What About Me” memorializes a selfish lover who “only touches me when he needs release” while “All my needs appear to be obsolete”; “Fuck Boys” deplores one-night stands who “Beg for my body with no intention / Of loving my mind”; and “Hate” excoriates an irresponsible partner: “Who else but YOU would toss away the glove / And attempt to infect me with poison?” Daryl-Jarod addresses neediness in “Damn This Loneliness” (“Double texted you after no response /…Cursed myself for every attempt to feel wanted”) and waxes cynical in “The Truth About Love.” But his speaker feels the pull of exuberant carnality in “The Love Below” (“As your love below expands / …Both of us panting and weeping / Pushing our bodies to insanity / …Those three words / Rest on the tip of our tongues”) and narcotic highs in “Another Hit.” Overall, Daryl-Jarod’s poetry effectively conveys a wide range of emotions, from desolation to tenderness to ebullience. The tension between longing and disappointment prompts a declaration of independence in “Like You Never Existed” and the healthy narcissism of “The Beauty of Self-Love” (“Find yourself a partner / Who appreciates the same beauty / You see when you gaze in the mirror”). The poet also mines the oppression of “being called sissy and faggot” in “I Wonder” and offers a truly ringing cry of solidarity in “A Love Letter 4 U” (“It doesn’t matter if we identify as / GAY or LESBIAN / TRANS or NONBINARY / Our unity makes us stronger than ever”). Readers may find that the poems in this collection sometimes come off as self-involved, which make the set as a whole feel uneven. Overall, though, the poems evoke the rush and anxiety of love in a relatable style that’s sure to resonate with many readers.
An often affecting book of poems about modern romance.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-945748-13-4
Page Count: 129
Publisher: Daryl-Jarod Entertainment
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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