Review of Love and Other Company
Posted: 05 Jul 2022, 22:44
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Love and Other Company" by Celia Sinclair.]
Love and Other Company is a collection of poems written by Celia Sinclair. From the sensuous touch of a lover’s hands to the heartrending pain of separation, from yearning for a soulmate to barricading your heart against love, Sinclair manages to relay her own experiences in relationships and with love. She gives snippets of her love life, as well as her personal feelings, through messages and poems, all mostly brief. Poems cover her loves, namely with those of Eric, Brian, Jason, and Mike, and the feelings that stood out with each, transitioning well into one another. Read this book for an evocative and immersive look at love.
This book is everything you would expect from the title, though this doesn’t make it predictable—far from it. The poems are written in a casual style, providing glimpses of Sinclair’s road with relationships, a road which may resonate with those intimately familiar with the highs and lows of love. It’s written almost exclusively in lowercase, a great choice considering the subject matter. Love and Other Company is fractioned into six parts, with five of the six seemingly being named after and directed at significant men in Sinclair’s life.
The vicissitudes of love, and other company, permeate each page of this collection. It’s as if love was viewed from different angles, times, and stages, on a journey. As Sinclair fell into love, narrating a moment or two in simple wording, so too did I; this gave the book a relatable edge. My favourite poem of the lot was ‘night angel’, one of two poems that take a nearly supernatural bent. I also liked the poems titled after the men she has loved, as they offered a telling look at her relationships with them.
I did spot the occasional error while perusing this book. None stopped or narrowed down my overall enjoyment while reading, however, and they totalled so small a number they seemed negligible. It might have been professionally edited, though not exactly meticulously so.
It’s no wonder that I have chosen to rate Love and Other Company four out of four stars. With minimal errors, a personalized feel to the poems that evokes empathy and reflects the realities of love, and a free but engagingly staggered writing style, there is much to love in this book. Readers with a penchant for bittersweet poetry from a woman’s perspective, or from the point of view of one who loves greatly, will find this book a treat. Profane elements, as well as the mature themes present, call for an adult-aged audience.
******
Love and Other Company
View: on Bookshelves
Love and Other Company is a collection of poems written by Celia Sinclair. From the sensuous touch of a lover’s hands to the heartrending pain of separation, from yearning for a soulmate to barricading your heart against love, Sinclair manages to relay her own experiences in relationships and with love. She gives snippets of her love life, as well as her personal feelings, through messages and poems, all mostly brief. Poems cover her loves, namely with those of Eric, Brian, Jason, and Mike, and the feelings that stood out with each, transitioning well into one another. Read this book for an evocative and immersive look at love.
This book is everything you would expect from the title, though this doesn’t make it predictable—far from it. The poems are written in a casual style, providing glimpses of Sinclair’s road with relationships, a road which may resonate with those intimately familiar with the highs and lows of love. It’s written almost exclusively in lowercase, a great choice considering the subject matter. Love and Other Company is fractioned into six parts, with five of the six seemingly being named after and directed at significant men in Sinclair’s life.
The vicissitudes of love, and other company, permeate each page of this collection. It’s as if love was viewed from different angles, times, and stages, on a journey. As Sinclair fell into love, narrating a moment or two in simple wording, so too did I; this gave the book a relatable edge. My favourite poem of the lot was ‘night angel’, one of two poems that take a nearly supernatural bent. I also liked the poems titled after the men she has loved, as they offered a telling look at her relationships with them.
I did spot the occasional error while perusing this book. None stopped or narrowed down my overall enjoyment while reading, however, and they totalled so small a number they seemed negligible. It might have been professionally edited, though not exactly meticulously so.
It’s no wonder that I have chosen to rate Love and Other Company four out of four stars. With minimal errors, a personalized feel to the poems that evokes empathy and reflects the realities of love, and a free but engagingly staggered writing style, there is much to love in this book. Readers with a penchant for bittersweet poetry from a woman’s perspective, or from the point of view of one who loves greatly, will find this book a treat. Profane elements, as well as the mature themes present, call for an adult-aged audience.
******
Love and Other Company
View: on Bookshelves