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Boook Review of Koraly Dimitriadis’ Love and Fuck Poems

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I won this book on Goodreads, and was intrigued by the title. Who has the gall to so title a book, I wondered. After reading it, I know.

Here is the description from the back:
Sexually repressed, separated Greek girl on a rampage. There’s no love here, just fucks. But is she fucking him or fucking herself? Love and Fuck poems. A 52 page story told through poetry. No fluff, no birds and trees, just honest, raw, poetry.

I think to fully appreciate this little book of prose I need to assess the whole package, because it is meant as a work of art as a whole. As you can see it is just a simple bi-fold pamphlet. It reminds me of a church program, or maybe someone’s personal moleskine as much as an actual book. But, I believe this is purposeful. The preface states quite clearly that Dimitriadis wanted it self-published to make a statement about art and the publishing industry, which would be pointless if it wasn’t easily identifiable as not meant the mass market. I like this aggressively indie mentality, though I do feel it is a little compromised by the fact that it is being translated into Greek (and presumably published) by a Cypriot publisher. Why not make the same statement there?

The personal journal feel continues throughout the book. Like the hearts on the cover, there are a number of doodles throughout the book and even a handwritten poem. Dimitriadis’ handwriting looks just like my little sisters BTW. This sense of the personal is the perfect environment for the poetry too. It is deeply personal, and some of them are painful to read. There is no shortage of grit. Many of the women in them (I won’t be so presumptuous as to assume they are all Dimitriadis herself) feel damaged, displaced and very post modern. But there are unexpected tender moments that remind the reader to breathe.

I don’t know a lot about poetry. The back of the book has a number of accolades from other awarded poets, so I trust that those who do know about the art know a good one when they read it. All I can go by is my reactions to these poems. I found about half of them sublime and the rest I neither liked nor disliked. I’m glad to have had the chance to read them, and recommend Love and Fuck Poems  for those who like in-your-face realism in their art. I’m a fantasy writer myself, so…

New to the TBR list

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I have added three books to the TBR list this week. The first I am really excited about. I traded books with another author. You see I adore autographed books. I’m a bit of a fan girl in that respect, and all authors are celebrities to me. It occurred to me one day that I fall in that same category. Yes I am an author, and if others like signed books too, then they might be willing to send me one of theirs in exchange for one of mine. I thought I had come up with a truly brilliant idea. I got really excited about it actually, but only one person took me up on the offer.

I think people are afraid that an offer of equal exchange must be a scam of some sort; that I’ll wait for their book to arrive in the post and never send them one in return. We all still pay for those copies after-all, and when working with a stranger there is no guarantee of honest reciprocation. (I refuse to allow myself to think that its just that no one was interested in The Weeping Empress.) I can understand their hesitancy. I certainly considered the possibility of loosing several copies of my own book with nothing to show for it, but I decided to go ahead with the offer.

I’m disappointed that more people didn’t respond. I was prepared to exchange half a dozen of my own books for 6 (or so) great signed summer reads. But I can’t complain about the one that came through. Y.I. Less has sent me a copy of

The Shadowed Valley, a dark fantasy with close to 4.5 stars on both Goodreads and Amazon. This is just up my alley. Here is the description:

“In The Shadowed Valley, nothing is quite what it seems. What Celia faces here is worse than anything she experienced in the land of Dauthus. The evil residing in the valley messes with your mind.”

I’m really looking forward to this read, and The Weeping Empress is soon to be in the mail to Y.I. just as promised.

The other two books are also awful enticing. They are both Goodreads first-reads wins. This week I offer for consideration More Deaths Than One and Rainwater.

More Deaths Than One looks like a thought provoking middle-eastern adventure.  Here is the description:  “Thomas Thornton has settled down to expatriated family life in Saudi Arabia. Wrongfully caught up in shariah law on drug-dealing charges, he discovers injustice is a bitter–and potentially fatal–pill.” I like thought proving.

Rainwater, by Sandra Brown promises to be a bittersweet love conqures all story. It has a very long description, but here is a taster: “The year is 1934. With the country in the stranglehold of drought and economic depression, Ella Barron runs her Texas boardinghouse with an efficiency that ensures her life will be kept in balance. Between chores of cooking and cleaning for her residents, she cares for her ten-year-old son, Solly, a sweet but challenging child whose misunderstood behavior finds Ella on the receiving end of pity, derision, and suspicion.” It looks really promising.

I came to a revelation this weekend. I couldn’t figure out how I had won five books in such a short amount of time. Then I realized it is a factor of living in the UK. There are far fewer Goodreads giveaways available to us on the island, but those that are have a far smaller pool of applicants. GB isn’t that big after-all, and only a fraction of the population is registered for GR, and even fewer enter the contests. As an example, last week I mentioned winning The Whipping Club. The author was giving away 100 copies of the book, and 107 people entered. It would have been more surprising not to have won.

This is my point. Giveaways open to the US and beyond attract entries in the thousands, those only open to GB and the surrounding areas usually only a hundred or so. I recently ran a giveaway. I offered 5 books, and the contest ran for a whole month, open only in GB. 143 people entered. That’s a 1 in 28 chance of getting a book, not too steep. So, I look forward to reporting lots of first-read books here. I will diligently read and review each one in time, so look forward to it.

 

It was a good week for Goodreads first-read books.

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Wow, what can I say I love Goodreads, and I regularly check the giveaways for interesting new reads. I’d never won anything though. Then, BAM!, this week I won three books-or I have been notified of having won three books. Nothing is real until it lands in my mailbox, or falls through the mail-slot rather.

First it was Combustible Sinners, then it was The Whipping Club, and finally Love and Fuck Poems. (How could you not love a title like that?)

What I particularly love about this small cluster of winnings is the variety. They have absolutely nothing in common. Combustible Sinners, as I mentioned a few days ago, is seven interconnected stories about the intersection of faith and culture in an evangelical Christian, Mexican-American community (right up my alley). My undergraduate was in Anthropology and Comparative religion. This is obviously a subject I would be interested in .

The Whipping Club is about an interfaith Irish couple fighting to rescue their adopted son from an abusive institution. I’ll have to save this one for a really nice day, as it promises to be a tearjerker. Serious subjects are best addressed under the balmy sun.

Love and Fuck poems is best described by its own description: “Sexually repressed, separated Greek girl on a rampage. There’s no love here, just fucks. But is she fucking him or fucking herself? Love and Fuck poems. A 52 page story told through poetry. No fluff, no birds and trees, just honest, raw, poetry.” My interest is certainly piqued.

My summer reading is lining up to be a corker.