Reviews

Particulate Matter by Felicia Luna Lemus

bandherbooks's review against another edition

5.0

The author wrote this during the year her wife was diagnosed with adult onset asthma during the 2020 wildfires in the LA area. Spare, but impactful passages and sometimes single sentences or just a word, this was a great read I'd not probably have picked up on my own. I especially enjoyed the one about the moon, and feeling the author's struggle to find her way when her home, both physical and metaphorical, wasn't where she had hoped and dreamed it would be (and stay).

melissa_bee's review against another edition

5.0

Granular in detail. Universal in theme. A small, complete world of a book.

chenoadallen's review against another edition

4.0

I love sparse writing. My favorite books are usually ones that convey a story and a feeling with the fewest words possible. If that’s not your style, skip this one.

having experienced climate change wildfires, this story resonated with me.

tonstantweader's review

reflective slow-paced

2.0

Particulate Matter is a memoir in the form of poetic fragments. My mother kept a sort-of diary, year in and year out. Every day she noted the temperature with additional observations about the weather such as seeing a bird chasing a squirrel away from the suet or a particularly good score at Scrabble. Reading Particulate Matter reminds me of my mom’s diaries.

The book begins with the writer preparing a house for her spouse who needs to be someplace she “can breathe, literally.” People leaving a relationship often say they can’t breathe, but it’s a metaphor. When Lemus says literally, she means literally. Her partner needed better air, but this is not self-evident within the book. That one word, literally, is being asked to carry a lot of weight. There is an artist’s statement that came with the book for review, but if readers who buy the book don’t get this, they may feel as confused as I was when I first read the book, before reading her statement.

I think of Particulate Matter as an abstract memoir. I just made that genre up, but it seems to fit. If you look at abstract art, you can infer what it means, but you can’t be sure. Lemus makes the big things in her life abstract while detailing the minutiae.

I did not like Particulate Matter. There were moments that I liked such as the paragraph where she writes about bringing in a hummingbird nest, freezing it, and placing it on her desk.  On the other hand, most of this book is less interesting than my mother’s diary entries. Several “chapters” or “poems” consist of one word. I was so irritated by this I was describing it to a friend who asked what the words were and I couldn’t remember. I told her I was “rolling my eyes too hard to read them.”

Particulate Matter will be released on November 3rd. I received an ARC from the publisher through LibraryThing.

• Particulate Matter at Akashic Books
• Felicia Luna Lemus author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/particulate-matter-by-felicia-luna-lemus/