The intriguing contours of a relationship are laid tantalizingly bare in these thoughtful poems.
This collection of poetry describes the downward arc of an unpredictable love affair.
“You enter, / capture me like a riptide I can’t escape,” writes Trozzolo, recalling the overwhelming power of the first encounter of a relationship that the poet asserts is fictional. From lust to longing, infatuation to infidelity, Trozzolo examines the internal workings of a love affair. The tenderly mordant poems open with a short, italicized commentary intended to define a specific moment in the relationship. For instance, prior to “Multitask,” the author states dryly: “We stayed together—almost committed. I was never your priority.” The poetry that follows attempts to capture a snapshot of these shifting emotional sands. In this case, the first stanza’s opening reads tersely: “Sounds like you’re giving / dictation as we make love.” The poems tackle everything from dangerous sexual infatuation (“You lure with your sweetness / and kill the future so beautifully”) to the dispiritingly hollow moment when a lover says, “Let’s be friends”: “There has never been / anything platonic about us.” As the collection closes, the poet is left to wrestle with the memory of a love that could never last. Trozzolo offers a refreshingly unique perspective on the ecstasies and endgames of romance. It is fascinating to observe the gradient of emotional intensity shift as the volume progresses. The opening crackle of sexual energy dissipates into flat reportage, as attentively captured in “How Was Your Day?”: “All I hear are low notes and misery. / Tell me instead of boats and clouds, / of speed and sex and dreams and bad ideas.” The hope of a return to more fulfilling days lies cleverly embedded in the poems but is never fully revived. Trozzolo is a master of the laconically poignant statement, distilling the complexities of entering couples’ therapy into two impactful lines: “Here we sit six feet apart, separated by heat and memories.” There are occasions when the writing can prove cloyingly clichéd: “You lean in close and whisper, ‘Follow me.’ Instantly I know I will never forget you.” But this can be excused since romance itself trades heavily in clichés. Still, this is sharp, emotionally observant writing that elegantly captures the bittersweet remembrance of bygone love.
The intriguing contours of a relationship are laid tantalizingly bare in these thoughtful poems.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 37
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2025 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.
