Review of Prose, Cons, Sins, & Vins
Posted: 27 Sep 2022, 13:31
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Prose, Cons, Sins, & Vins" by Rachel Heintzel.]
Prose, Cons, Sins, and Vins is a pocket-sized book of poems by Rachel Heintzel. The blurb on the back cover of the book describes it as a ‘grimoire’ (a magician’s manual) that contains the writer’s account of a ‘harrowing life-and-death encounter with a dangerous soul.' The same blurb explains that the ‘sins’ mentioned in the title are the poet’s thoughts and musings, while the ‘vins’ are experiences. Each of the thirty-five poems in the collection is a separate sin or vin, with its title announcing the category the poem belongs to. This system gives us ‘Vin the First: Savoring a Bite’, ‘Vin the Second: Amidst the Pages’ and so on. There are twenty-one sins and fourteen vins. So, does this grimoire succeed in casting a spell on the reader?
If you enjoy poetry that deals with inner pain and turmoil, then this collection might just work some magic on you. Its pages are filled with bleak imagery. In the writer’s own words, the poetry is ‘A rhapsody of suffering / A cacophony of despair.’ (page 28) One poem has the poet ‘Furiously writing / Sewing pain into page.’ (page 38) The line describes a process in which the writer’s inner turmoil is released by putting it into verse. This is poetry as therapy.
What is it that triggers such pain in the writer? Who is the ‘dangerous soul’ mentioned above? Clues are slipped between the lines. We are told that the poet was writing ‘scorching infernos’ (page 50) at the age of six but that no one picked up on these distress signals. The poet admits to being frightened and saddened by anything and everything, following this up with the confession that ‘I have been for years.’ (page 38) Is the dangerous soul, in fact, the writer’s own beleaguered psyche?
I liked that the poet varies the format and style of the poems. The favoured format seems to be rhyming four-line verses, but there are longer freestyle poems too. I also liked that some of the lines sounded a more hopeful note in amongst all the angst. The poet is able to find solace in a pebble, ‘A memento of a day / I shared with my love.’ (page 40) This serves as a reminder that ‘Though I am broken / I am not lost.’ (page 40)
The concept of sorting the poems into sins and vins, or thoughts and experiences, didn’t work for me. At times, I couldn’t see any difference in content between the two categories. I also felt that the use of ordinal numbers in every title became slightly irritating after a few pages. Additionally, two of the poems were assigned the same ordinal number. ‘Sin the Fifth: Possession’ is followed by ‘Sin the Fifth: Changing Stations.’
I am awarding this book three out of four stars, deducting one star on account of the points mentioned in the previous paragraph. I found only three errors in the text, so I had no issue with the quality of its editing. If you like poems written with feeling and honesty, you might well find this collection to your taste. The subject matter is quite dark, so I would recommend it only to older teenagers and above.
******
Prose, Cons, Sins, & Vins
View: on Bookshelves
Prose, Cons, Sins, and Vins is a pocket-sized book of poems by Rachel Heintzel. The blurb on the back cover of the book describes it as a ‘grimoire’ (a magician’s manual) that contains the writer’s account of a ‘harrowing life-and-death encounter with a dangerous soul.' The same blurb explains that the ‘sins’ mentioned in the title are the poet’s thoughts and musings, while the ‘vins’ are experiences. Each of the thirty-five poems in the collection is a separate sin or vin, with its title announcing the category the poem belongs to. This system gives us ‘Vin the First: Savoring a Bite’, ‘Vin the Second: Amidst the Pages’ and so on. There are twenty-one sins and fourteen vins. So, does this grimoire succeed in casting a spell on the reader?
If you enjoy poetry that deals with inner pain and turmoil, then this collection might just work some magic on you. Its pages are filled with bleak imagery. In the writer’s own words, the poetry is ‘A rhapsody of suffering / A cacophony of despair.’ (page 28) One poem has the poet ‘Furiously writing / Sewing pain into page.’ (page 38) The line describes a process in which the writer’s inner turmoil is released by putting it into verse. This is poetry as therapy.
What is it that triggers such pain in the writer? Who is the ‘dangerous soul’ mentioned above? Clues are slipped between the lines. We are told that the poet was writing ‘scorching infernos’ (page 50) at the age of six but that no one picked up on these distress signals. The poet admits to being frightened and saddened by anything and everything, following this up with the confession that ‘I have been for years.’ (page 38) Is the dangerous soul, in fact, the writer’s own beleaguered psyche?
I liked that the poet varies the format and style of the poems. The favoured format seems to be rhyming four-line verses, but there are longer freestyle poems too. I also liked that some of the lines sounded a more hopeful note in amongst all the angst. The poet is able to find solace in a pebble, ‘A memento of a day / I shared with my love.’ (page 40) This serves as a reminder that ‘Though I am broken / I am not lost.’ (page 40)
The concept of sorting the poems into sins and vins, or thoughts and experiences, didn’t work for me. At times, I couldn’t see any difference in content between the two categories. I also felt that the use of ordinal numbers in every title became slightly irritating after a few pages. Additionally, two of the poems were assigned the same ordinal number. ‘Sin the Fifth: Possession’ is followed by ‘Sin the Fifth: Changing Stations.’
I am awarding this book three out of four stars, deducting one star on account of the points mentioned in the previous paragraph. I found only three errors in the text, so I had no issue with the quality of its editing. If you like poems written with feeling and honesty, you might well find this collection to your taste. The subject matter is quite dark, so I would recommend it only to older teenagers and above.
******
Prose, Cons, Sins, & Vins
View: on Bookshelves