Thank you to NetGalley for my eARC!

I'm someone who really likes poetry and I tend to give modern poetry a try always. I'm also familiar with different experimental styles since I have read poetry from the avant garde movement as well. But this didn't really mesh with me. There were some that I really enjoyed, but when the experimental was taken a bit too far I was confused and I didn't really understand the point of some of these poems.

I hope to read more from this author, maybe this collection wasn't just for me.

**Thank you to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and the author for the free ecopy of this collection in exchange for honest feedback.**

I have a hard time rating anything under 3 stars but this one almost didn't make it to that. Eileen Myers clearly has beautiful ideas and I appreciated HER appreciation of the mundane and routines of everyday life.

The formatting didn't work for me at all. I've seen a lot of reviews commenting that maybe the formatting is "too smart" for them or they "don't get it" but I didn't feel that way at all. To me it felt clunky and a bit lazy if I'm being entirely honest.

I had a hard time getting through this one and almost DNF'ed after realizing all of the poems were in the same, fragmented style.
Hope it works for you if you try it out!

This was a good poetry collection and as always, some poems hit closer to home than others. I will be reading their other work

Eileen Myles' poetry is a force to be reckoned with, a bold and unfiltered exploration of the human experience that challenges conventions and invites readers into a world of raw emotion, radical expression, and unapologetic honesty. With their distinctive voice and a unique blend of wit, vulnerability, and political consciousness, Myles has carved out a significant place in contemporary poetry.

Myles' poems pulse with an energy that defies categorization. Their writing is sharp, provocative, and unafraid to confront societal norms, exploring themes such as gender, sexuality, identity, and class. Through their use of colloquial language and unconventional structure, Myles creates a sense of immediacy and intimacy, drawing readers into their world and inviting them to witness the complexities of the human condition.

One of the defining aspects of Myles' poetry is their ability to blend the personal and the political seamlessly. They engage with social issues and confront power structures with a fierce and unapologetic gaze, challenging readers to question the status quo and consider their own complicity. Myles' poems are often imbued with a sense of activism, celebrating the marginalized and advocating for change.

In addition to their incisive social commentary, Myles' poetry exhibits a deep understanding and appreciation for the everyday. They find beauty in the mundane, elevating ordinary moments and experiences into something extraordinary. Their poems often capture the fleetingness of life, the fragility of existence, and the search for meaning in a complex world.

Myles' use of language is both accessible and poetic, blending conversational tones with moments of lyrical intensity. Their ability to create vivid imagery and evoke a range of emotions is remarkable. Their words have the power to move and unsettle, to elicit laughter and provoke contemplation.

Eileen Myles' poetry is an invitation to embrace the complexities of existence and challenge the constraints of society. With their bold and unapologetic voice, Myles confronts the reader with profound observations, fierce activism, and an unwavering commitment to radical honesty. For those seeking a transformative and thought-provoking journey through the human experience, Myles' poetry offers a revelatory and impactful reading experience that lingers long after the final stanza.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced reader’s copy of a “Working Life”. All opinions are my own.

WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: April 26, 2023


Eileen Myles has done it once again—delivering poems so deceptively simple this reader is shocked by the intimacies and revelations within. In a “working life,” they make it look easy—this dance between the scrupulous ecstasy of the present while never far off is the concern for the future of our planet. a “working life” was published yesterday by Grove. Congratulations, Eileen!

Here's a sample poem from the book:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/09/march-3

This collection was the first I've read by Eileen Myles. The poetry seems to all be written in the same format, which is fine if not at time monotonous. When the poems are focused they hit home and really resonate with the reader. As they fall from focused to fragmented and abstract, it loses all meaning.
The work is blunt - right to the point - but it should not necessarily be taken at face value. I believe this stanza says it all:

"I'm something unreliable/and this/is a day for/poetry"

The poetry was fine, an interesting turn on new voices.
Unfortunately my enjoyment of the poems was hindered by the unreadable format. There were lines of text that were just a single letter for the entire line. It’s unclear if this is artistic choice or if it’s the fault of the publisher who formatted the review copies. But I found it difficult to pull through reading, and altogether enjoying, the poetry when it was so illegible

Thank you to NetGalley for my eARC!
I was so looking forward to reading something by Eileen Myles. Unfortunately, I think this might have been the worst way to meet her work.
While I can appreciate the stylistic choices and formats, they really did not work for me. Almost every poem in this collection is formatted the same way (and I'll be honest, I didn't read most of them after the first 1/4 of the book). It's choppy, sentence fragments and even word fragments are given entire lines to themselves, making it feel really difficult to read. Maybe I'm not cool or smart enough for poetry like this, but it felt like a stretch. I was especially unsatisfied with poems like Memorial Day: "cat / jumps / into / a dump / ster / shopping"... and September: 'I heard / a distant / girl / screaming / out there / like an elastic / everyone / liked / the kitten / on the / boat / it's / an old / name / for a rub / ber / band / but a / band / all the same / which / is nothing / like / a tiger / that / killed / a kid / and later / the tiger / got shot / you kill / me. You / simply / kill me." And there are so many more just like these.
I could not get through this collection and believe me, I tried.

I am usually someone who prefers lush, flowery prose, dancing around the point— Myles’ is blunt and right to the point. When I read the first poem in this collection I was filled with the dread of ‘oh no, I don’t like this.’ But I kept reading, and slowly the magic of Myles’ writing was unveiled for me.

The writing style is unique and perfectly suited to the abstract tapestries Myles is building, showing an elegant and deep understanding of the craft. As soon as I read Friday Night, I knew this poetry collection would be a standout for me for years to come.

I liked individual lines or segments of poems more than the poems overall. The poems about politics struck me as a little cliche based on others from the time, but I understand the feelings and emotions that living in the Trump era brought forth.
I think this collection will strike a chord with millenial and gen z women, lines like "I don't think / I can / live without / taking pictures" put words to feelings I know but never articulated, as did "I'm just/ doing/ everything/ all over/ again/ drinking/ coffee/ and being /alone." I wish the collection had a unifying theme or characters, because a lot of people, lovers and exes are mentioned but not explored in detail.

The first Eileen Myles work that I’ve read. Maybe the wrong choice? I have been exploring a whole host of poetry over the past few weeks, mainly because of my busy schedule and relative inability to get into meaty books, like tougher poems or classic novels. Most of the poems here were bite-sized, one or two words a line. Unfortunately, they didn’t suit me. At all. I hope others will enjoy this collection by Myles when the book is out.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

Really enjoyed this quick and thoughtful collection - there is something perpetually familiar about the way Myles writes and I find it comforting! The way sentences and even words were broken down into fragments made quite moments sharper and brought a disjointed stream of consciousness to the whole body of work.

Personally this wasn’t for me. I enjoy poetry collections but the spacing of these poems made it very difficult for me to read. I’m sure there are people that will get into this but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get through it.

I loved some of the imagery in this, and how abstract it was. However, the use of hyphens, white space, and misspellings or alternate spellings made this difficult for me to read at times. The poetry is unique and something that I would recommend to a lot of people I know who would love this, it just isn’t for me personally! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!

Ah, I am so thankful to have been granted access to this beautiful work of art from Grove Atlantic, NetGalley, and Eileen Myles before it's set to publish on April 18, 2023. This was the perfect book of poetry to just pick up and put down on slow or busy days, as a reprieve from the chaos. A simple inhale and exhale to bypass the bullshit. Its vertical formatting made for easy reading and simple flow and Ioved that.

Myles' poems included in "a 'Working Life'" are definitely a product of their time, relatable, delicate and sincere.

It took me a while to get used to their minimalism and abstraction, but I can to really enjoy this collection. The poems oscillate between description and abstraction, details and epics, and when they hit the right combinations, Myles' talent shines.

A Working Life was very hard for me to get through. The lack of punctuation and word-splitting (starting a word on one line and finishing it on the next with no hyphen) had me struggling with rhythm in my head. The writing is very choppy, sometimes with just one word on a line, and it often felt like it was just a grouping of unrelated words, rendering it really unapproachable.

I’m not a poetry expert so I’m sure this is a writing technique, but it was extremely distracting to me.

There were some very timely and important themes explored such as the pandemic, refugees and immigration, the patriarchy and climate change. I think the message is vital but the execution was lacking for me. I just didn’t get it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to review this book.

I'm something
unreliable
and this
is a day for
poetry.

I'm trying to understand why I liked this book so much and I don't have answer. There are just some really wonderful moments that pull you in and honestly Eileen Myers is so much fun to read out loud!

My personal favourites from this collection are April 15, Beloved Train, Love Song and September 7.

This poetry collection is scattered and a bit nonsensical, which I personally loved. It reads like Notes app ramblings. I would recommend it for people who are already fans of Myles' other work, as its not really the best introduction to them, but it is fun. Extremely fun, a little goofy, very weird. Felt like deleted scenes from a favorite author's work — exclusive in an exciting way.

Just wanted to note that ~a "Working Life" by Eileen Myles~ doesn't seem to have a Goodreads page yet, so I'll be using a placeholder for that review. I'll move it when it's updated.