Book Review: “Egghead” by Bo Burnham
This is certainly one of the strangest sentences I have written into a book review, but: thank you, @therealjacksepticeye, for recommending this book in your recent livestream.
This collection of poetry is weird, but in a very good way. Most of these poems play on words and overused phrases and idioms that become meaningless when you actually think about them. They also describe everyday things, which are sometimes just as absurd as the words we use to describe them. The language is very ... well: poetic, and always very clever. As a non-native speaker of English, I want to read them over and over again until I get the joke. Some poems are plain out fun, others rather macabre, but a good deal are deep and impactful. The style likewise ranges from traditional to modern to WTF. However, there is a raw emotion, a pain, that shines through most of the poems, even the ones about love that seem fluffy at first. The wonderful illustrations by Chance Bone are also worth a second (and third) look, as they are sometimes an inseparable part of the poem, sometimes just complimentary, and sometimes contradictious. I do recommend a print copy over the ebook version, as I often felt that the ebook destroyed the impact of seeing picture and text side by side. Also, fair warning for a healthy dose of adult language.
My favorites include "Magic", "I Eat Words", "Flowers", "Alfred", "You", "Fear", "The Commercial", "Different", "Our Father", "They", "Ashley", "Be Patient", "Wooden Soldiers", and "I Can't Stand Trees". But I do have the feeling that if I go back to this book in a month's time, with different issues on my mind, I will find I like a completely different set of poems.
#project hail mary
#heated rivalry
#writers on tumblr
#photography
