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The Self Unstable (2013)

by Elisa Gabbert(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

098447529X (ISBN13: 9780984475292)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Black Ocean

review 1: A surprise after the more elliptical The French Exit. This made me remember how much I like thinking in poems. & poems that don't bother with representation. & even Wallace Stevens sometimes. Staked in declarative sentences, each mini essay speaks as if it is delivering an important truth. When these truths are surprising, the collection is satisfying. And even sometimes when they're obvious. Sometimes the obvious needs a frame:"A photograph, in contrast to a painting or a sculpture, isnot a unique object, and therefore has no aura. It isdifficult to view a photography exhibit in a museum andfeel moved. It is difficult to feel moved in general. Onefinds oneself repeatedly accessing a single painful orpoignant memory. To elicit full tears, one must revisehistory. One must w... moreillfully make of the thing a grotesquerie."
review 2: Structurally, it's somewhere among essay, autobiography and prose poetry. The distinction isn't important from an enjoyment perspective, but it feels strangely unrevised.I enjoyed it at first, but 10-15 pages in I began to feel pummeled by the sameness of its sentence structures. Most pieces follow a pattern of Concept->Reaction->Reflection->Twist. The "Twists" often take a turn away from proclamations towards the world of nature, though others end in bromides that fall a bit flat.I blew through the book relatively quickly due to its lack of density; perhaps I'll take another look in a few weeks. less

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