Slim Blue Universe
by: Eleanor Lerman
January 4, 2024 Mayapple Pres
68 pages
review by: E. Broderick
All right friends, today things are getting a little wild on the blog. When I receive communications from publishers, authors, or marketing professionals I am nothing if not honest. I’m willing to take a look at almost anything so long as it has even a minute amount of Jewish content, but I am a slow reader and I never promise a review. For one thing, life is busy and thoughtful reading takes time. For another, there are some genres that rarely are a hit with me. Horror is the one I struggle with the most. I’m trying to expand our picture book and nonfiction offerings. But poetry? I never made a statement about that because, unless it’s a novel in verse, it is so far removed from my typical reading and writing it never occurred to me to review it here.
So how did I come to be reviewing Eleanor Lerman’s seventh poetry collection, Slim Blue Universe? The publicist put it though our Suggest a Book form and I was feeling adventurous at the time. Also, much like the title promises, it is a slim volume so it’s not like I was investing a tremendous amount of time. Lastly, the cover is a deep navy blue with wonderful, universe-representing, celestial graphics. Everyone knows I’m a sucker for aesthetically pleasing, space, astronomy, or celestial type stuff. So I said I’d give the book a try.
No, I did not miraculously come to an understanding of rhyme and meter, nor did my abstract thinking suddenly improve to the point where I can parse these poems with ease. This is not that kind of review. I fully admit that I could not read a single piece straight through and feel confident that I understood it. That’s not the books fault, that’s on me and my limited skill set. It has occurred with any poetry I am fool enough to approach.
So why then am I writing a review? Isn’t BookishlyJewish a site for recommendations only? Well, not understanding doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good time. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced poetry is meant to be understood. The people who claim to do so are usually the type of academics who have degrees in extremely obscure subjects and select their thesis topics based on how few people will be interested in them. For me, and probably ninety percent of the reading universe, understanding is not the point. For us plebeians, poetry is about feeling.
Slim Blue Universe has several sections, and a few references to Judaism, but reading across the poems I had certain recurrent emotions. I found myself reflecting on getting older and also my social media use. How much is it worth engaging with a wide anonymously audience vs. a smaller in person one? What will my legacy be when I die? Do I even want a legacy? When did I stop being young? You get the point. It was a ponderous Shabbat to say the least.
Are these the thoughts the author intended for me to have? I have no idea. I can never confidently say that for any fiction book either. This is a book review website, not a class in divination. What I can say is, Slim Blue Universe was a quick read that left me with lots of not so quick thoughts to mull over. Some of the turns of phrase and metaphors were very beautiful. Others went right over my head. Will I venture further into reading poetry? Hard to say. But I’d hate for that pretty book to get lonely on my shelf.
BookishlyJewish received an arc of this book from the publicist