I’m currently in my first semester of my second year in college! The first few weeks were tough, I had multiple submissions due around the same time but now there’s 3 weeks left till the end of the semester and I surprisingly *think* that I *might* have everything under control.
I haven’t been finding time to read much, but when I do, I hope to take it at a slow pace, enjoying each book rather than speeding through just to give a review. I have a few books that I’m juggling at the moment which I’d like to share with you guys soon.
Till then, enjoy this review of Cranium Retaliations!
Cranium Retaliations (Flags, Broken Bottles and Senses Weeping Due to Exhalations)
get it here
BOOK SUMMARY
The Flags represent some of the icons that made the human history and their values are still alive to this day.
The Broken Bottles represent the misadventures, obstacles and sad facts that can pop during a lifetime.
The image of Senses Weeping represent all kinds of emotions generated by the first two, love on top of all.
Through three symbols, sense of humour and storytelling, the Italian poet Isaak Sank talks about literature, art, history, social injustice, world politics and his roots. Please feel welcomed into the mind of a young artist.
BOOK REVIEW
2.5 STARS
*A review copy was given in exchange for an honest review.
“…I don’t say what I read, I never make notes or underline passages.”
Cranium Retaliations – Isaak Sank
“Can I know why?”
“Because that’s where you reveal the most about yourself, it can be a true personal diary.”
This is a book that I (looking at the reviews and ratings before me) wanted so badly to like. It had such high ratings but I didn’t feel the same way about it.
It is important to note that Cranium Retaliations not like most of the poetry and prose collections that I’ve read. There were lengthy text and a heavy usage of imagery, which I would usually enjoy. However, some of the poems/proses were a little difficult to understand.
I believe it was due to language. Some sentences were not grammatically correct, so I would assume it was translated from another language. Then again, my grasp of the English language isn’t that strong either so I could be wrong. The idea behind each prose was solid, however it wasn’t easy to understand. I had to read some a few times over to understand the meaning, some of them I still don’t really know what it meant but there are notes at the end of the poem indicating what it was about.
With that being said, I have mix feelings about this book. Perhaps, I was not the right target audience. There were a lot of events, words, imagery that were significant that I did not know about, causing me to be confused for half of the proses in this book. For a non-spoiler example, in Expositions Part 2, set in what I believe was 1980, it spoke of things which I knew and was familiar about, all because I had an art history lesson about the 80s and the culture of the people of that era. Which made this quite an issue – to be able to fully enjoy this book, it is necessary to be able to have a basic understanding of the eras or subjects mentioned.
However, with a lot of them, when I finally understood the meaning, it felt like a powerful poem – some reflects on humanity, some gives a mystical feeling, shares different perspectives and even challenges to think differently. I had a couple of favourties from this collection, such as Dear Collard, Penmanship, Wi…Fine?. Although I enjoyed those few, I still can’t get over the difficulty of not understand what some poems were about.
SKAVANSIEUR 