Inconsistent but valuable for its mythologizing of the Kosovar struggle to exist.
This poetry collection veers between subjects ranging from war in the Balkans to misanthropy at a bar.
Gjoka (Shadows Speak in Riddles, 2011) collects 80 poems, presenting them in their original Albanian and a facing English translation. With such a large pool of verse, it’s no surprise that the content varies. In one moment, Gjoka invokes Homeric myth to tie the violence in Kosovo to a cosmic struggle; soon afterward, he writes of texting an ex. But in these transitions, it’s not the subjects so much as the inconstancy of voice that can be jarring. Gjoka is at his stylistic best when elevating the speaker’s struggles to monumental excess: “My heart hurts tonight for you, dear Albania. / Gods have blessed and cursed you. They’re mean and kind. / Sons you bred forgot your longing, pretty daughters / Who cry for Harmonia / And Cadmus they cry.” By comparison, his vulgar, Bukowski-like voice feels not only less appealing, but less profound: “ ‘I wish, I wish I stole your keys. / You never, never could drive drunk. / But drink if you can drink the seas / If you have close a dear one, / A shoulder you can lean at ease / If you are drunk.’ ” Though these two examples are translations, the latter’s issues are only peppered throughout the book, evidence that the collection could have benefited from some trimming. Nonetheless, rare, powerful creations still shine through, such as the stark image of an empty ballroom in “Back in Time after Death.” Gjoka’s autobiographical ties to Kosovo provide perhaps the strongest of these moments, and in general, the elegiac works here are most effective. A more conscious flow and more careful curation may have boosted this collection to greater heights.
Inconsistent but valuable for its mythologizing of the Kosovar struggle to exist.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1482501995
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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