Martina McGowan

Anger. This poetry collection radiates anger in ways that a book should not be able to. Anger towards the American society. Anger towards history. Anger towards the world. But at the same time there are glimpses of hope and something else - love and belonging; longing to belong and hope to exist.

If you are trying to escape from the news, this is not the book for you - the news are in the middle of most of the poems - from the named victims to the unnamed ones and back; sometimes in clean text, sometimes just as a hint.

It is current events commentary in a poetic form and poetry about the days we live in. And I found it impossible to read through the whole book in one sitting - 30 poems on 90 pages do not sound as much but the words and the emotions make you stop and think. Or at least they did for me.

I also could not stop comparing this collection with Jasmine Mans' "Black Girl, Call Home" which I read a few days earlier. They do cover some similar topics in some of their poems but they do it in different styles and inside of different frameworks. McGowan lets her rage show; Mans seems to be calmer. But the anger and disappointment is in both. And yet both styles work.… (altro)