Official Review: Of Illusions and Ink Spills
Posted: 01 Mar 2018, 08:50
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Of Illusions and Ink Spills" by Divya Hirani.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Of Illusions and Ink Spills by Divya Hirani is a collection of free-verse poetry. There are approximately sixty poems in this collection, and they range in length from almost a full page to only four lines. At the beginning of the collection, an introduction is provided by the author that describes herself as a ‘young professional immigrant in a foreign land.’ However, any person, young or old, will have no trouble connecting with the themes and words written within the pages of this collection.
The poetry itself doesn’t follow any set standards. Many of the poems are free verse, some employ rhyming meter, but most do not. The author tends to use elaborate wording, which worked most of the time but felt overdone in some places. Additionally, there were some wording choices along the way that gave me pause, as their meaning was unclear given the context. For example, on page 48, the line ‘My witchen subconscious’ eluded me. Similarly, on page 57, the line ‘Tell tale till going kaching’ was baffling and difficult to decipher. Moreover, the collection is missing a table of contents, which became irksome when I wanted to return to a specific poem.
The element of this collection that stands out the most is the author’s distinct voice. The author’s tone is strong and unwavering, and the more of the poems I read, the more I could paint a picture of her defiant and questioning personality. It was enjoyable to see the author resonating from the pages of the collection instead of getting lost in overly wordy or meandering prose.
For the most part, the themes in these poems are clearly conveyed to the reader. Poems dealing with monotonous daily routines, fitting in with the world and with your peer group, questioning society’s rules, questioning faith, reinventing one’s self, and familial relationships were all relatively easy to decipher. However, there were a few poems in the collection that were more difficult to interpret. This isn’t a collection of poems that can be read once and easily understood; for many of the poems, I had to read them multiple times and really ponder their meaning before I could come up with some type of message or theme, whether intended or not by the author.
For this collection, the things I disliked about the poetry also ended up being some of my favorite aspects of the author’s work. Many of the poems were difficult to decipher, yet I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of thought it took to fully understand the themes and messages of these poems. Too often, the meaning of poetry is spoon fed to the reader; that is not the case with Hirani’s work, and for that I happily award this book 3 out of 4 stars. I chose to forgo a four star rating because of the use of some indecipherable words in places that distracted from my overall understanding of the author’s words, and the lack of a table of contents. For poetry fans that enjoy collections that make you think about everyday life and questioning of societal standards and faith, I highly recommend this book.
******
Of Illusions and Ink Spills
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
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Of Illusions and Ink Spills by Divya Hirani is a collection of free-verse poetry. There are approximately sixty poems in this collection, and they range in length from almost a full page to only four lines. At the beginning of the collection, an introduction is provided by the author that describes herself as a ‘young professional immigrant in a foreign land.’ However, any person, young or old, will have no trouble connecting with the themes and words written within the pages of this collection.
The poetry itself doesn’t follow any set standards. Many of the poems are free verse, some employ rhyming meter, but most do not. The author tends to use elaborate wording, which worked most of the time but felt overdone in some places. Additionally, there were some wording choices along the way that gave me pause, as their meaning was unclear given the context. For example, on page 48, the line ‘My witchen subconscious’ eluded me. Similarly, on page 57, the line ‘Tell tale till going kaching’ was baffling and difficult to decipher. Moreover, the collection is missing a table of contents, which became irksome when I wanted to return to a specific poem.
The element of this collection that stands out the most is the author’s distinct voice. The author’s tone is strong and unwavering, and the more of the poems I read, the more I could paint a picture of her defiant and questioning personality. It was enjoyable to see the author resonating from the pages of the collection instead of getting lost in overly wordy or meandering prose.
For the most part, the themes in these poems are clearly conveyed to the reader. Poems dealing with monotonous daily routines, fitting in with the world and with your peer group, questioning society’s rules, questioning faith, reinventing one’s self, and familial relationships were all relatively easy to decipher. However, there were a few poems in the collection that were more difficult to interpret. This isn’t a collection of poems that can be read once and easily understood; for many of the poems, I had to read them multiple times and really ponder their meaning before I could come up with some type of message or theme, whether intended or not by the author.
For this collection, the things I disliked about the poetry also ended up being some of my favorite aspects of the author’s work. Many of the poems were difficult to decipher, yet I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of thought it took to fully understand the themes and messages of these poems. Too often, the meaning of poetry is spoon fed to the reader; that is not the case with Hirani’s work, and for that I happily award this book 3 out of 4 stars. I chose to forgo a four star rating because of the use of some indecipherable words in places that distracted from my overall understanding of the author’s words, and the lack of a table of contents. For poetry fans that enjoy collections that make you think about everyday life and questioning of societal standards and faith, I highly recommend this book.
******
Of Illusions and Ink Spills
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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