True Stories group discussion

[Alexa]

Next up, a volume of poetry!

[Alexa]

And still waiting on this one to show up from the library....

[Alexa]

Got it! This is another slim little volume - these are the contents:
It's in three sections, the first section is untitled and contains:
True Stories
Landcrab I
Landcrab II
One More Garden
Postcard
Late Night
Petit Nevis
Hotel
Dinner
Nothing
Small Poems for the Winter Solstice
True Romances
The second section, "Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never Be Written," contains:
A Conversation
Flying Inside Your Own Body
The Arrest of the Stockbroker
Torture
French Colonial
A Women's Issue
Christmas Carols
Trainride, Vienna-Bonn
Spelling
Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never Be Written
The third section contains:
Vultures
Last Poem
Earth
Use
Sunset I
Variations on the Word Love
Sunset II
Variation on the Word Sleep
Rain
Mushrooms
Out
Bluejays
Damside
Blue Dwarfs
High Summer
Last Day

[Alexa]

True Stories, Landcrab I, Landcrab II, I loved all three of these! Postcard, Late Night, both of these feel like they come straight out of Bodily Harm.

[Alexa]

This has some quite touching love poems in it, and some overtly political ones too.

[Alexa]

Atwood ends Bodily Harm's story of political injustice, intimidation and torture by saying, "She will pick her time; then she will report." And that's what she's done here. These poems are making political points about torture and repression and politics unlike anything else I've seen from her previously.

[Alexa]

If you can, take a look at "A Women's Issue." Wow!

[Alexa]

A lot of the earlier poems in this felt like they could have been written by the protagonist in Bodily Harm, then later on they start to feel like they could have been written by the protagonist from Surfacing. It's really fun to hear that voice again. I think this is my favorite book of her poetry so far.