Official Review: Coming Together: by Anthony Barclay

[Nisha Ward]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Coming Together:" by Anthony Barclay.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Poetry and national development are two concepts that have always gone hand in hand. Coming from a small post-colonial nation, I can attest to that well. It’s why I picked up Anthony Barclay’s Coming Together: The Ins and Outs of Liberia’s Ups and Downs. I know well that poetry can do a lot to embody the spirit of a nation, and I wanted to see that up close.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t really impressed by it as a collection. It was decent enough to earn 2 out of 4 stars from me, but my boredom and lack of engagement prevented it from scoring much higher.

Coming Together: The Ins and Outs of Liberia’s Ups and Downs isn’t so much a narrative as it is a tribute to the Liberian national project. A deeply learned professional in the field of development and economics, Anthony Barclay composes a song to his country in the form of this collection, a song that’s filled with his vision for its development. In addition to this, he juxtaposes his nationalistic feelings against those he possesses for his family and friends, resulting in a somewhat lopsided book.

The poems in the book are fine. I didn’t particularly enjoy them, but I didn’t hate them either. As I mentioned, I was mostly bored and couldn’t, as a result, engage with the work meaningfully. This was a huge factor in my low rating, as subjective as it is, because it felt like the poems were a matter of rote repetition more than anything that could add much to a conversation about national development.

In addition to this, a lot of it also felt like the author was saying the same thing repeatedly for no reason. When I say the book feels like rote repetition, I mean that many of the poems felt like they could have been condensed into one without losing any of the substance they hold. It was tiring to read after a while, and I had trouble staying focused, much less distinguishing one poem from the next.

Furthermore, there were quite a few errors in the foreword and acknowledgements that caught my attention. Much of this can be attributed to English being Barclay’s second language, but an editor should have caught and pointed them out. The book definitely needs polishing on that front.

I did, however, like the author’s love for Liberia and how it shone through in his work. Despite the lack of impact on me as a reader, I could still see clearly that he has deeply patriotic feelings for the country and a need to see its development through.

Unfortunately, that was the only thing I liked, given that I can’t even differentiate between the poems enough to highlight any individual piece. Readers looking to learn about how developing nations are seen by their own citizens might like this, but I wouldn’t really try to recommend this one outside of that context.

Happy reading, everyone!

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Coming Together:
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[Becca Olsson]

It’s unfortunate that you were so disappointed by the poems. I hope the author can address some of the concerns you’ve mentioned. Thanks for the honest review

[markodim721]

I'm sorry that the songs didn't manage to cause a stir. That is the meaning of the song, to provoke emotion. Thanks for the unbiased review.