Helen Frost’s Keesha’s House

Frost, Helen.  Keesha’s House.  2003.  New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2007.
There are no characters in this novel (by the Helen Frost who wrote The Braid, discussed here in a previous entry) and in fact, really, no plot.  It consists of a series of poems in traditional forms, mostly sestinas and some sonnets, each presenting a [...]

Marlene Carvell’s Sweetgrass Basket

Carvell, Marlene.  Sweetgrass Basket.  New York: Dutton, 2005
In this novel of what claims to be free verse, two young Mohawk sisters leave the reserve to attend a boarding school, and tell of their experiences there in alternating “poems.”  As is typical of texts of this sort, the sections are in the first-person present tense, as [...]

Ellen Hopkins’s Identical

Hopkins, Ellen.  Identical.  New York: Margaret K. McElderry, 2008.
This novel is so over the top that it almost becomes entertaining for its sheer over-the-topness.  Almost, but not quite, because what’s over the top about it exactly what makes soap operas over the top, and so it’s just too expectable to be all that interesting.  Indeed, [...]

Melanie Little’s The Apprentice’s Masterpiece

Little, Melanie. The Apprentice’s Masterpiece.  Toronto:  Annick, 2008
Medieval Spain, fifteenth century.  There are two focalizing characters: Ramon, the son of a scribe, a Jew whose family has converted to Christianity but nevertheless experiences an increasing intolerance of “conversos”–those not of longstanding Christian blood; and Amir, a Muslim slave who comes to work for Ramon’s father.  [...]

Helen Frost’s The Braid

Frost, Helen.  The Braid.  New York: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus, 2006.
The book consists of a series of “poems”–or, I guess, would-be poems, for I fail to see much in the way of what I would personally consider poetry in them.  The language isn’t terribly distinguished or even all that interesting in and for itself (i.e., as [...]

A.M. Jenkins’s Beating Heart

Jenkins, A.M.  Beating Heart.  New York: Harpercollins, 2006.
The alternating narratives are visually distinguished from each other–his is third person present narrative that looks typically novel-like, hers a first person collection of thoughts set out on the page to look sort of like poetry (but hardly actually ever achieving anything poetic–the only thing this spacing of [...]