Embryos and Idiots

by Larissa Szporluk
Embryos and Idiots  
published 2007 by Tupelo Press
binding Paperback
isbn 1932195521   (isbn13: 9781932195521)
pages 72
description

"This is poetry both luscious and rigorous."-Lynn Emanuel

This latest collection from the young but already established luminar...more

date added
03-12-07



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Matt
Matt rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
12/19/07

Read in November, 2007
Awesome, to a degree. As a lyric, anarchic, female rejoinder to Milton's epic, orderly, masculine voice (she uses him for her title and epigraphs), the book is conceptually ambitious and tackles the myth of the Fall. Nonetheless, she does so by writing poems that are small, jagged, hypnotic and sexy, and they are all about tempting us into falling from having fallen: re-falling and somehow getting into new space morally and musically - or maybe she just wants to enter a new space-time altogeth...more
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Kristin
Kristin rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
10/30/07

Read in October, 2007
This is the best one can expect from a poet who seems to be branching off from what her fans have come to love her for.

Individual poems are sometimes much more angry and fragmented, while others still keep the same old Szporluk extended melody, rhyme, and incantation. The book as a whole tells a new myth, a creation story all of Szporluk's making, and the accumulation of the poems and their emotional resonance is what brings this collection together in a way that seems a bit different for t...more
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Tiffany
Tiffany rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/28/07

Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: only a few
It took me awhile to get into the first section of this book. The language was, in Szporluk's usual fashion, magical and engaging, but all of the poems centered around a mythology that seemed, at first, a little hollow. By the end of the section, I was somewhat taken in (she gives voice to the rocks that make up an island, onto which a dead woman washes up), but then in the second section, she abandoned that mythology and switched gears all together! This book had some very memorable moments,...more
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Gary
Gary rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
08/08/07

bookshelves: good-ones
The first section of this book is so beautiful.

I'm in the midst of writing a review of this for a lit mag... it's a hard book to pin-down. I love it, its beauty, its mystery, its mythology, but there's something really irky about the jumps that occur between the sections. I think it's easy enough to overcome those irky spots, but a small complaint never killed anyone.

It's still a fantastic book. Five stars for sure.

Update: Reread it last week. It's freaking brilliant! Nuff said.
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Stacy
Stacy rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
07/17/08

If you read one poem, essentially you read the entire book. Szporluk is attempting to create her own myth drawn from Paradise Lost, each of her sections a different part to the myth. She lacks variety though and though her voice at times is interesting along with word repetition and play, the obvious theme overtakes everything else. You should read Szporluk, just not this book.
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Craig
Craig rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
08/21/08

Read in August, 2008
I love the poet. Just not this book.

I find the concept to be interesting, and at points it seems close to realizing its potential.

That said, the book tended to lose a lot of the power that I have found in Szporluk's voice before. I understand the need to try something new and I don't begrudge her ambition, but it feels a bit like a "miss" to me.
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Fiona Sze-lorrain
Fiona marked it as to-read
08/26/08

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Chad
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Steve
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04/16/08

 

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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.88 (26 ratings)
number of reviews: 6






other editions