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seedy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
whatever
divineauthor's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
“Death is easier / than love. And true feeling, as someone said, / leaves no memory.” —“The Major Subjects,” page 35
raab uses such simple language to say something incredibly insightful. i must say though, THE HISTORY OF FORGETTING is his best work to me but this one is still really good (also did so much for my characters fr)
raab uses such simple language to say something incredibly insightful. i must say though, THE HISTORY OF FORGETTING is his best work to me but this one is still really good (also did so much for my characters fr)
adonisroses's review
emotional
reflective
5.0
an absolutely insane and masterful use of narration, specifically a self-aware narrator. these are poems told in the voice of someone who knows they're telling poems. incredible i wanted to rip my fucking hair out
simplyb's review against another edition
4.0
I have read quite a bit of Lawrence Raab's poetry. I'm by no means an expert or aficionado on it, but enough to know that he is consistently solid with smatterings of lyrical and thematic brilliance that comes to fore. In this most recent collection, longlisted for the National Book Award for poetry, he explores themes surrounding getting older: meaningful existences, life after death, the meaning and fading of memory. There are a few shine-through examples in the first three sections of his book, but they all play off each other thematically dancing around the same themes with flair and grace. But little does one know that this is all build-up to his culminating poetry narrative that occupies the remaining third of his book, a meandering yet story-like exploration of living, loving, and fading into the world after the living world. It's loose yet connected, straight-forward yet complex, its poignancy constantly hitting you in unexpected ways. The collection is solid Raab, but this multi-sectioned poem that closes out the last third of the book is what makes this collection truly remarkable and establishes Raab as a poetic master, in my estimation.
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