Thursday, August 30, 2007

TEAHOUSE OF THE ALMIGHTY by PATRICIA SMITH

JULIE R. ENSZER Reviews

Teahouse of the Almighty by Patricia Smith
(Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2006)

TRANSFORMING REVIEWS, Experiment 2:
A List About Patricia Smith’s Teahouse of the Almighty


Ten Great Lines from the Book

1.
                                          the virus pushing
her skeleton through for Nicole to see.

2.
Gwen Brooks hissed Follow. We had no choice.

3.
Then we began our walk toward separate sounds.

4.
shuck you silver peas for dinner.

5.
pan water dab cheap smellgood

6.
Don’t hate me because I am multiple, hurtling.

7.
What men do with their mouths

8.
What do we do with these huge gifts of the throat and tongue?

9.
A sweet beginning I can hide in my mouth.

10.
               My child you will conquer the spice.
You will swallow.



What Reading Teahouse of the Almighty is Like

Get in your car. Go to a long stretch of freeway. Turn on your radio. Loud. Hit the scan button. Listen to the blend of voices and music, jazz, blues, pop, hip-hop, rap, news, talk, all together in short recurring though seemingly random increments.


Artistic Forbearers

Gwendolyn Brooks
Mary McLeod Bethune
June Jordan
Koko Taylor
Ray Charles
Stevie Wonder
John Lee Hooker
Ella Fitzgerald
John Coltrane
Erica Jong
Nancy Friday
B. B. King
Eric Clapton
Martin Luther King
Mother Theresa

Can you hear their voices, their sounds together? Patricia Smith can.

*****

Julie R. Enszer is a writer and lesbian activist living in Maryland. She has previously been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Room of One’s Own, Long Shot, the Web Del Sol Review, and the Jewish Women’s Literary Annual. You can learn more about her work at www.JulieREnszer.com.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home