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A review by brice_mo
Constance by Jane Kenyon
5.0
I read this largely for "Having It Out with Melancholy," hoping that Kenyon would offer language that would be somehow sufficient for depression. During my initial reading, I was disappointed because the language never transcends its own futility, but I think that's kind of the point.
The bluntness of certain sections, like "Suggestion from a Friend," demonstrates the difficulty of even getting words on a page, let alone shaping them into something "beautiful," and that kind of gentle desperation guides the reader through what, by the end of the sequence, is clearly a recurrent cycle.
If nothing else, I find the book encouraging because it suggests that shaping language into anything with form is itself an act of healing.
The bluntness of certain sections, like "Suggestion from a Friend," demonstrates the difficulty of even getting words on a page, let alone shaping them into something "beautiful," and that kind of gentle desperation guides the reader through what, by the end of the sequence, is clearly a recurrent cycle.
If nothing else, I find the book encouraging because it suggests that shaping language into anything with form is itself an act of healing.