Cover Image: Rooms

Rooms

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Member Reviews

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I liked some of the verses in the poems but I didn’t necessarily like the poems.

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I really enjoyed this collection of poetry, my first by Louise Dupré.

This is a work in translation. I would never have known the poems had originally been written in any other language than English which shows the skill of the translator.

The poems are vivid, powerful and intense at times. Dupré knows exactly what she wants to convey and does so in the clearest of terms, no waffling or pretty language to be found, just the perfect words in the right order.

I would recommend this poetry collection and would love to read more by Dupré.

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The synopsis of this book is as follows "Rooms is lyrical and meditative, painterly, erotic, and philosophical. The book is thematically and structurally a unity, but a unity of many parts, one and multiple. Rooms, many-chambered, purposeful and highly stylized yet light, light and airy as a beehive. Rooms plays like late 20th century blues-inflected jazz. There are multiple melodies, linked through motifs and memory: recurrent variations on several themes—childhood, life and death, love, memory, and duration." I think that is pretty much the best way to describe this book. I am typically not a "poetry" genre gal so I would not take my review as gospel. I was intrigued by the first 30%, but after that, I was no longer able to grasp what was trying to be conveyed. Could it be that something was lost in translation? Perhaps, I am unsure. I noticed numerous words being repeated. I had to wonder if in its original language, French, if different it meant something other than the repeated word. I give this a 3 star, which is higher than I would normally give, but I honestly feel it was not a good selection on my part.

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