"The Likes of Us"

“The Likes of Us”

Written by Michael Gottlieb

Review written by Diana Iozzia

 

“The Likes of Us” is a very complex and verbose collection of poetry written by Michael Gottlieb. Unfortunately, the vocabulary is much stronger and harder to understand. I felt myself unable to understand any poetry fully, since many of them are created with sentence fragments, allusions, idioms, and difficult vocabulary. I felt that each poem had a certain awkward, frazzled disorganization that I could just not grasp a hold of. It also didn’t help me that every poem felt like it all belonged in one epic, which still did not provide enough clarity.

I remembered as I began to learn, I was taught to read a page and if I could not understand at least five words, I was told to choose a different book instead. I always chose to read it anyway, however, this book was far too tough for me. This poetry collection is clearly for someone else. I personally understand William Shakespeare’s classic literature more than I understand this.

The poems I (think I) enjoyed are:

“A Rout-in-Waiting”

“Untroubled by Rest”

“Early + Late”

“A Kind of Waiting Room”

Sadly, I do not recommend this collection of poetry. I plan to pass on my copy.