Book Review: the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace

Oh. My. GOODNESS.

Poetry can be tough – it’s very personal and reactions to it can be unpredictable. It’s often full of simile and metaphor and allegory, and can be difficult to unpack. Sometimes it’s just difficult. And sometimes it’s transcendent, as in this gorgeously brutal collection by Amanda Lovelace.

In sparse, haunting, spot-on prose, Lovelace bares her life to her readers. She has a facility with language that is second to none – she manages to express a lifetime’s worth of pain and promises (both broken and fulfilled) in phrases that are shorter than my To Do list but that hit with the impact of a Mack truck. The format and layout and words meld together into an experience of a life that broke my heart and made me proud, often at the same time.

There is a spirit of defiant possibility that underlies even the harshest self- (and other-) inflicted criticisms that resonated even as it brought a lump to my throat. We may feel fragile but we have a core of steel – we just need to let it hold us up. That’s my takeaway, anyway, and I think it’s a brilliant and oh-so-timely reminder that needs to be shouted in a daily affirmation to our messed-up modern world.

The princess has most definitely saved herself in this one, and here’s hoping that her bravery and courage will help other princesses (and the occasional prince) do the same…