Review of Mexico
Posted: 08 Aug 2023, 07:21
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mexico" by Esther Cohen.]
Mexico by Esther Cohen is a short poetry book about adventures in Mexico. The poem is in first-person perspective. The persona and her husband are from the US and are vacationing in Mexico. Their first destination was Oaxaca, where the poem describes its activities, like making silk and how colorful the place is. The poem's second and third places are Mexico City and San Miguel. Here, the persona in the poem gets to draw a picture of these places and their settings. She talks about the adventurous sites and restaurants they visited, the type of food they were offered, and all their interactions with strangers and friends.
One positive aspect of the poem is that it features comics. Several instances in the book made me chuckle. One of these amusing instances is on page 26, where the persona explains how she was confused to see crashed airport eggs on the menu only to realize it meant scrambled eggs. I also liked the vivid description of the Mexican adventures in the poem. The poem narrows down every detail so that you can visualize the scenes being described. Furthermore, as it talked about the positives of Mexico, it also tackled some negatives, such as Mexicans' complaints about corruption in their government. That created a balance because nothing is purely perfect.
However, as much as I enjoyed the poem, I found something I wouldn't say I liked. I understand the poets' freedom to either include punctuation or fail to do that in their poems. However, in this one, some lines were punctuated while others weren't. That confused me because I couldn't tell if it was an error or the author's writing style. I suggest that the sentences be punctuated, or every thought should be placed on its own line if the author chooses not to include punctuation so that fusion of sentences, as seen in a good part of this book, is avoided.
For the above negative, I will deduct a star from my rating. I rate Mexico 4 out of 5 stars. The poem was professionally edited, and I recommend it to lovers of adventure poems.
******
Mexico
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Mexico by Esther Cohen is a short poetry book about adventures in Mexico. The poem is in first-person perspective. The persona and her husband are from the US and are vacationing in Mexico. Their first destination was Oaxaca, where the poem describes its activities, like making silk and how colorful the place is. The poem's second and third places are Mexico City and San Miguel. Here, the persona in the poem gets to draw a picture of these places and their settings. She talks about the adventurous sites and restaurants they visited, the type of food they were offered, and all their interactions with strangers and friends.
One positive aspect of the poem is that it features comics. Several instances in the book made me chuckle. One of these amusing instances is on page 26, where the persona explains how she was confused to see crashed airport eggs on the menu only to realize it meant scrambled eggs. I also liked the vivid description of the Mexican adventures in the poem. The poem narrows down every detail so that you can visualize the scenes being described. Furthermore, as it talked about the positives of Mexico, it also tackled some negatives, such as Mexicans' complaints about corruption in their government. That created a balance because nothing is purely perfect.
However, as much as I enjoyed the poem, I found something I wouldn't say I liked. I understand the poets' freedom to either include punctuation or fail to do that in their poems. However, in this one, some lines were punctuated while others weren't. That confused me because I couldn't tell if it was an error or the author's writing style. I suggest that the sentences be punctuated, or every thought should be placed on its own line if the author chooses not to include punctuation so that fusion of sentences, as seen in a good part of this book, is avoided.
For the above negative, I will deduct a star from my rating. I rate Mexico 4 out of 5 stars. The poem was professionally edited, and I recommend it to lovers of adventure poems.
******
Mexico
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon