Review of To be more happier

[Maduabuchi Okwiya N Eze]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "To be more happier" by Andte Thompson.]

---

3 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

To Be More Happier is a poetry book, and in it, we find a list of random thoughts presented in quatrains and alternate rhymes. The two hundred and forty stanzas fluctuate between personal, relationship, societal, and philosophical contents. One of those random thoughts contained in this book is the nothingness of life and its supposed realities, as is seen in stanza "184", where the poet argues that we shouldn't let anything bother us, given that everything eventually zeros to nothing.

I do have to acknowledge the artistry invested in the poems. Andre Thompson baked the poems with rich poetic ingredients, ranging from rhymes to run-on lines, allusion, personification, and metaphorical connections. For example, the equation of life to a peach (stanza 187) not only generated powerful imagery in me but also helped me appreciate the wider context of the surrounding lines and the overall message being explored.

The random thoughts are succinct, and this makes the messages or viewpoints have deeper and longer impressions in the minds of the readers. Take, for instance, the presentation of poem stanza 137:
"There wasn’t
Much to say
Kept truckin’
Anyway"
Most of us have come across people with this trait and can relate to how annoying it can be when "just a minute of your time" turns into hours laden with repetitive, empty words and promises.

However, the most serious issue I had with this book was its undefined contents. It's just a stream of thoughts with no unified structure or theme. None of the poems is titled, and each stanza is independent and "stranger" to the one before and after it. There is no fluidity due to the disconnect in continuity. This affected my comprehension of the text. Also, some of the poems were repeated, like poem stanza 80, which was repeated as poem stanza 156. I didn't see the need for that.

Although I appreciated the frugality with words, some of the word choices sounded so distant that I struggled to grasp the meanings of some of the poems. An example of such a poem is
"Fooled me twice—
Shame on me
Yellow rice
And green tea" (poem stanza 91). Furthermore, some poems would be better off removed from this book, given their little or no impact, like poem stanza 232; those lines are generic.

To Be More Happier earned three out of five stars because of its aesthetics, achieved through the skillful use of relevant poetic devices and the thorough editing done in it. The author exercised his poetic license, so I couldn't find the book "guilty" of any grammatical errors. However, this book lost two stars because the poems were not captioned and lacked fluidity due to the disconnect between them. Also considered in removing the stars were the repeated poems and some abstract word choices. Nevertheless, this poetry collection is a good choice for every poetry lover, especially those more interested in the beauty of poems than their ease of comprehension.

******
To be more happier
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Uchechi uk]

I find it hard to comprehend poems most especially an unfamiliar theme. You did well writing this review.

[Bolarinwa100]

The poem is nice you need to comprehend poem

[Okewunmi Pelumi]

I love your review. You did well, and I love your compositions, so distinctive!