<![CDATA[Embryos and Idiots]]>

false <![CDATA[Embryos and Idiots]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173743557m/321608.jpg 321608 1 "This is poetry both luscious and rigorous."-Lynn Emanuel This latest collection from the young but already established luminary Larissa Szporluk is cause for celebration. Szporluk has proven once again that she not only deserves her elevated status in the poetry world, but reinvents and advances it with each new collection. This is spare, sly, seductive, and haunting poetry that resonates long after the rustle of the page. Szporluk has an uncanny ability to hone her words until their edges slice like small, deep paper cuts, whittling away at the human experience, searching for the truth of things. Despite her three previously published-and much heralded-works, this visionary poet continues to innovate. She remains completely unpredictable, as if these visceral poems lead her to extraordinary places of their own volition. She writes of mother-son relationships, political and social events-always with an underlying mythic aspect, and always demonstrating an undeniable faith in the human spirit. Larissa Szporluk is the author of three books of poetry: Dark Sky Question, winner of the Barnard College Poetry Prize; Isolato, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; and The Wind, Master Cherry, the Wind. She received a 1998 Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, and her poems have been widely anthologized in The Best American Poetry 1999, The Beacon Best of 1999, New American Voices, and Young American Poets. She is assistant professor of creative writing and literature at Bowling Green State University. 312325 1 4 2007 Embryos and Idiots total:40|5:11|4:14|3:9|2:5|1:1| 40 149 67 9 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 19 11:44:56 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 11:45:07 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 05 16:26:18 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 16:11:15 -0700 2007
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 whol...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 19:40:57 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 19:45:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 11:14:15 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 11:16:33 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 18:22:10 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 20:03:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jul 02 21:19:01 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 13:04:19 -0700 2007
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 ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jul 17 23:08:51 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 23:11:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 00:27:06 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 00:29:22 -0700 2008
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 a...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Feb 07 10:18:16 -0800 2008 Tue Sep 09 07:30:09 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Nov 11 05:37:32 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 05:37:32 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 17 23:52:48 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 23:52:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 01 04:50:30 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 04:50:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 14 11:52:27 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 11:52:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jun 18 19:29:18 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 19:29:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 15:07:20 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 16:31:14 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 15:07:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 17 13:08:45 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 13:08:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 17 10:45:11 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 10:45:22 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri May 01 16:27:13 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 16:27:13 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 08:07:15 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 07:51:28 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Apr 09 18:59:47 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 18:59:47 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=321608