Advanced Book Review: The Driver, The Journey, The Fall
The Driver, The Journey, The Fall
by Lisa M. McDougald
I received an Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley in exchanged for an honest review. The book is expected to be published in March 2019.
After reading this collection, I let it sit in my brain for a couple of days before writing this review, as I was unsure of how I felt about it. I had to revisit the poetry because it’s not memorable.
There’s on overarching theme of bleakness. However, I was inundated with repetitive imagery; most poems seemed to be rewrites of another (similar content, similar language). As a reader, I failed to connect with the McDougald emotionally, and felt the very vague poetry pass over my head.
Having said that, linguistically, I can see the author having potential. In the poem I Forgot My Wallet, I was low-key impressed, and wished more of McDougald’s poetry to be of this quality. In a number of poems, the forced rhymes were an unnecessary layer of distraction and weakened the writing in many levels: language, form & content. As it boils down to a subjective judgement, I rate this collection as 3 out of 5 stars (on the lower side of 3), in that it was better than bad. Perhaps other readers may connect more, although I have my doubts.
In summary, I’d say this poetry is mediocre at best. McDougald has some good ideas and directions, but I don’t feel like they are truly committed to what they’d like to say, and this barrier is risking alienating the readers to a state of boredom and non-interest. I wouldn’t recommend The Driver, The Journey, The Fall to anyone, but by all means, I’m interested in McDougald’s progress and future work, considering this is only a debut collection with hidden promise.
Book: The Driver, The Journey, The Fall
Book Cover: Goodreads
Book Review: Jeremy Mifsud
Header Photograph: Cristina Gottardi
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