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serenaac's review
4.0
House Inspections by Carsten René Nielsen of Aarhus, Denmark, translated by David Keplinger, is a collection that the poet himself calls surrealist, but readers will find them poignant and truthful as well. The collection includes not only the original prose poems in Danish, but also the English translations Keplinger did in collaboration with the poet. David Keplinger introduces the collection with: “It was in this place of natural beauty and order that we set to work on Nielsen’s poems of the neighborhood, rich in imagery of human interaction, comedies of errors, unanswerable questions, an Escherlike world of dark cellars, blind alleys, tenements and fitting rooms.” (page 7) There is definitely a dark, blind alley in each of these poems — like “Fitting Room,” “Steps,” and “Wistfulness” — that the narrator leads readers to before springing the unexpected upon them. In many ways, these surprise endings remind me of the one sentence endings of some Anita Shreve novels that change the entire story in a moment.
One stellar poem in the collection is “Reading,” in which the narrator calls attention to something amiss in the text, but does not reveal what it is. By the end of the poem, it is clear that the one giving the reading does not mean what s/he says. “the lips don’t move in full accord with what is actually said.” (page 17) While the thing that is amiss or the actual context of the situation remains a mystery, readers can easily connect with the realization that something that was thought to be true is not. A running theme in many of these poems is the careful inspection or observation of the players or the scene to uncover what is “wrong” with the situation or what is unusual about it. There is always someone watching or the feeling of being watched, like in “Theater.”
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/12/house-inspections-by-carsten-rene-nielsen-translated-by-david-keplinger.html
One stellar poem in the collection is “Reading,” in which the narrator calls attention to something amiss in the text, but does not reveal what it is. By the end of the poem, it is clear that the one giving the reading does not mean what s/he says. “the lips don’t move in full accord with what is actually said.” (page 17) While the thing that is amiss or the actual context of the situation remains a mystery, readers can easily connect with the realization that something that was thought to be true is not. A running theme in many of these poems is the careful inspection or observation of the players or the scene to uncover what is “wrong” with the situation or what is unusual about it. There is always someone watching or the feeling of being watched, like in “Theater.”
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/12/house-inspections-by-carsten-rene-nielsen-translated-by-david-keplinger.html
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