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A review by mlindner
The River of Heaven by Garrett Hongo
3.0
I did not fall in love with any of these poems, nor did any of them particularly speak to me, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Many of these are a few to several pages long; very few are shorter than one page. Despite this being longer than I generally prefer I found myself enjoying them.
The main reason I enjoyed them is their narrative. All of them tell a story. The stories they tell seem to me to be the kind Tom Waits would tell if he were California educated, Hawaii born, and of Japanese descent. They are "well-lived in stories;" stories of being other; semi-seedy stories; stories of bravery, longing, desire, hopes unmet, and so forth.
The main reason I enjoyed them is their narrative. All of them tell a story. The stories they tell seem to me to be the kind Tom Waits would tell if he were California educated, Hawaii born, and of Japanese descent. They are "well-lived in stories;" stories of being other; semi-seedy stories; stories of bravery, longing, desire, hopes unmet, and so forth.