Night Sky With Exit Wounds
Book - 2016
A haunting debut that is simultaneously dreamlike and visceral, vulnerable and redemptive, and risks the painful rewards of emotional honesty.
"Ocean Vuong's first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial "big"--And very human--subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant enthrallment, that a gentle palm on a chest can calm the fiercest hungers."--Publisher's description.
"Ocean Vuong's first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial "big"--And very human--subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant enthrallment, that a gentle palm on a chest can calm the fiercest hungers."--Publisher's description.
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Publisher:
Port Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2016]
Copyright Date:
©2016
ISBN:
9781556595851
1556595859
9781556594953
155659495X
1556595859
9781556594953
155659495X
Characteristics:
viii, 89 pages ; 19 cm
Additional Contributors:
Opinion
From Library Staff
From Library Staff
"Night Sky is an earnest invitation to witness Vuong's most personal experiences: his sexuality, his absent father, and the kind of grief that is passed down through generations. These poems have a softness to them that permits moments of peace and even celebration to peak through, but ultim... Read More »
Hazel's Pick: "Night Sky is an earnest invitation to witness Vuong's most personal experiences: his sexuality, his absent father, and the kind of grief that is passed down through generations. These poems have a softness to them that permits moments of peace and even celebration to peak thro... Read More »
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Add a CommentMoving, tender poetry with themes of the Viet Nam war, sexuality, and race throughout.
This poetry collection reveals a gifted, sensitive poet. Almost all the poems seemed to me to be written in a sort of personal code as the poet tried to convey deep emotions and impactful experiences. A unique work of art.
Vuong's apologia for Jeffrey Dahmer "Into the Breach" on page 37 made me realize that this unending exercise in alienation did not evoke understanding but something akin to outrage and I quit reading.
Starkly emotional with evocative imagery and exquisite language. I wish this wasn't overdue to the library so I could savor it more.
So I don't read a lot of poetry and am not entirely sure I know enough about the craft to offer a critique. However. I loved this and can understand why Vuong is getting so much attention right now. I may not have loved (or even understood) ALL of the poems, but the ones I did love, I REALLY loved (Aubade with Burning City to name one). AND my love of this may not be as vast as my love of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, but I absolutely cannot wait to read more poetry (and prose of course) by this writer.
I devoured this award-winning collection of poems much faster than I meant to. Call it literary gluttony.
By far, the most powerful collection of poetry I have read this year. Powerful, erudite, a journey of epic proportions, told from the lens of the Vietnamese-American immigration experience interwoven with literary and American cultural references. A must-read for anyone interested in great modern poetry. Ocean Vuong deserves all the accolades he has received.