Maxwell Suzuki
  • Home
  • Writing / Visual Art
  • Reviews
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Writing / Visual Art
  • Reviews
  • Blog
  • Contact

Reviews

Review of Obit by Victoria Chang

2/8/2022

0 Comments

 
​Obit by Victoria Chang is a collection of poems which try to work through and deconstruct the grief she had felt after the death of her parents. She discusses the deep well of pain and suffering as well as confronts what that mortality means to her. The collection is mainly in the form of prose poetry in paragraphs, which aid in creating a sense of endlessness to the grief and suffering. Additionally, there is a sort of repetition in the poems where each one begins by saying something (an object, a concept, a person) died. I think the poems that use this concept well are ‘Voice Mail’, ‘Civility’, ‘Gait’, ‘Secrets’, ‘The Clock’, and ‘Victoria Chang’.
 
To me however, while the poems worked to deepen the understanding of the speaker’s grief, they didn’t seem to push past those boundaries. Though, I did appreciate the lines in the poem ‘My Mother’ that said, “The way memory is the ringing after a gunshot. The way we try to remember the gunshot but can’t. The way memory gets up after someone has died and starts walking.” Chang admits in her poems that even after sitting and residing in the hurt that she still isn’t sure that it will go away. And for that reason, after finishing the collection, it feels like a bittersweet moment for Chang as she must continue to live with, understand, and grow from her parent’s death.
 
Final Rating: 4/5
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Maxwell Suzuki is a writer, poet, and photographer based in Los Angeles.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021

    Categories

    All
    1/5
    1.5/5
    2/5
    2.5/5
    3/5
    3.5/5
    4/5
    4.5/5
    5/5
    Ada Limón
    Aldous Huxley
    Alexander Chee
    Ali Araghi
    Anne Lamott
    Austin Kleon
    Brandon Taylor
    Brett Biebel
    Brit Bennett
    Cathy Park Hong
    Chen Chen
    Colson Whitehead
    Dang Thuy Tram
    Delia Owens
    Devon Capizzi
    Dianne Suess
    Elie Wiesel
    Esteban Rodriguez
    Faith Shearin
    Fiction
    George Watsky
    Hanya Yanagihara
    Jean Kwok
    John Green
    Joy Kogawa
    Juhea Kim
    Julie Otsuka
    June Jordan
    Katsu Kokichi
    Kaveh Akbar
    Kenzaburō Ōe
    Kiese Laymon
    K-Ming Chang
    L.A. Johnson
    Madeline Miller
    Magazine
    Marc Lamont Hill
    Masaki Fujihata
    Matthew Salesses
    Michelle Zauner
    Natalie Diaz
    Natsuo Kirino
    Non Fiction
    Ocean Vuong
    Photography
    Poetry
    Rafael Zepeda
    Sally Rooney
    Sarah Fawn Montgomery
    Sequoia Nagamatsu
    Stephen King
    Steven Pressfield
    Tracy K. Smith
    Truman Capote
    Victoria Chang
    Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Yoko Ogawa
    Yoshiko Uchida
    Yukio Mishima

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.