Poetry. Welcome to Johannes "private genocide," ground zero for figurative language. Put on your best pig smile and meet the gratuitous martyrs, Ku...
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Mar 08, 2010
Naomi
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What struck me about this volume of poetry was its completely un-poetry-like qualities: Göransson writes most often in prose blocks, creating poems that are many pages long with dramatic shifts between sections. One of his most unique structural tools is to break the poem in the middle by inserting a short exclamation on to a blank page, then returning to prose blocks. These exclamations often have a sarcastic or self-deprecating edge, such as in the middle of the poem "Pig Circus" whe
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Mar 06, 2010
Zoe
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This book of poetry was not like anything else I have ever read. It was often prose turned violent, crude, disgusting. It was also comical and random, fascinating to read, and truly bizarre. The poems are linked in some fashion one to the other, interspersed with random short sections and long rambling sections. I can't truly say I enjoyed reading all of them, often I found some of the language excessive and got lost or bored halfway through a page. In other poems I found myself jotting down spe
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Mar 08, 2010
Gus
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I really liked this book, from the first poem on. At times I was lost, perhaps overwhelmed by Goransson's extensive use of metaphor and simile. But that was also the books charm. Certain lines jumped off the page - In The Seminal Union of Carvers, a poem about a personal struggle with peace and war Goransson writes "The enemies hide in bushes, the heroes go insane like helicopters." In the backdrop of Vietnam and personal imagery, that line hit me in the core and grabbed my attention f
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Mar 08, 2010
Rebecca
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This book perplexed me. Although I did enjoy some of his poems, I found myself losing track of what the author was talking about in his poems of multiple pages. Many seem connected, such as the references of trucks in his Postcards series. I did not enjoy the sentences on pages between the long poems because it interupted my focus and I had to stop and rethink what the author was talking about. This book was very different from other books of poetry I have read because of the paragraph-like stru
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Sep 20, 2009
Joe
rated it: 
A wicked poetry dump that resists prying out any tidy pieces:
"...The problem is that it's too hot
in this high school mausoleum; the dog salivates and
this interferes with its sense of smell. This makes it
tick too loudly. It leads me out on gravel roads and
minimalist color fields. Now we're entering a stadium
full of white people singing songs about heartbreak
like they were ready to round up all the strays in town.
Maybe they'll take care of my dog. More...
"...The problem is that it's too hot
in this high school mausoleum; the dog salivates and
this interferes with its sense of smell. This makes it
tick too loudly. It leads me out on gravel roads and
minimalist color fields. Now we're entering a stadium
full of white people singing songs about heartbreak
like they were ready to round up all the strays in town.
Maybe they'll take care of my dog. More...
Mar 07, 2010
Marie
rated it:
These poems are definitely longer than most poems I have read. "Pig Circus" especially felt long, but I enjoyed its changes in tempo and tone. The poems were also interrupted occasionally by pages with little bits of texts. Though there are nice breaks in some of the longer poems, I found them to be too distracting at times. Although most of the time I had no idea what he was talking about, there are moments in the book where I can completely understand and relate to. I’m also curious
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Apr 05, 2010
Victoria
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Johannes Goransson writes poetry like none I have ever read before. I love the way he experiments with different poetic styles, line breaks, and language within a single poem; I think the way he experiments with all types of poetry with little regard of basic poetic “rules” makes his poems so unique. His work carries a lot of pain, but I like the way he mixes it with humor and satire.
Though the book as a whole was less cohesive than I would have liked, there are some really powerful mome More...
Though the book as a whole was less cohesive than I would have liked, there are some really powerful mome More...
Mar 08, 2010
Bryan
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This was an interesting read through. Some of these poems were a little on the long side, but there is nothing wrong with that .The one titled "Pig Circus" felt really long to me, but I enjoyed it overall, especially the changes in tone and style it made. Each poem seemed somehow linked to the one before it (not always but sometimes). A fe of the poems were a little bizzare and threw me for quite a loop but overall I enjoyed this book
Mar 08, 2010
Marco
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I really enjoyed reading his postcard poems. His prose poems had a lot of interesting sentences such as "My torso is not made for birds." I didn't really get into the book that much though a lot of the time I found myself getting tired of a poem half way through. It was an interesting read though
Feb 17, 2009
Zach
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I once told a professor of mine that I wanted to carry a bazooka when I wrote my poems.
Johannes Göransson carries a bazooka.
Johannes Göransson carries a bazooka.
Jul 20, 2010
William
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Feb 24, 2008
Catherine
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"I keep mentioning my torso because I wish I were a
zoologist. I wish I were a surgeon. Or Darwin. Or a
ballet impresario in Paris. Or a mole in the ground.
Or a reptile collector. Or 5000 accidents. Made of
swans. Or Darwin. Or an injury. Or going home in
a wheelbarrow. Or moving into the Hotel Fuck. Or
bleeding slowly into a silver bucket. Or plundering.
Most of all I wish I were Darwin."
zoologist. I wish I were a surgeon. Or Darwin. Or a
ballet impresario in Paris. Or a mole in the ground.
Or a reptile collector. Or 5000 accidents. Made of
swans. Or Darwin. Or an injury. Or going home in
a wheelbarrow. Or moving into the Hotel Fuck. Or
bleeding slowly into a silver bucket. Or plundering.
Most of all I wish I were Darwin."
Nov 02, 2008
Ross
rated it:
This just arrived and it is exessive, disgusting, overindulgent, horrible, immoral, gratuitous and i love it.
Feb 08, 2008
Brian
rated it:
a twisted 21st-century Song of Myself--nearly epic, completely terrifying and hilarious
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