Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

I became intrigued by this book based on this review of it in this group:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I recommend anyone read that first review before deciding on whether this is for you.

I'm 57 years old and found myself wondering why I'm reading another book about the brutality of war and the long-lasting negative affects even for those who survive. I already knew that. Perhaps I thought I would learn more about this particular war, which was the Mau Mau uprising against the British Empire in Kenya. I can't say that I did except that it was at least as brutal, if not more brutal, than other wars.

The subtitle deems it an epic. Although it is narrative and spans 60 pages, I'm not sure I would consider it epic. It sticks very much to one person's experience in the war. It has none of the scope of Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body (much criticized but undoubtedly epic and ambitious).

For me the most interesting part of this book was how the title's "broken word" reverberated through the poems. There are personal contracts on both sides that are broken and upheld as well as political/social ones and it ends with a young woman suggesting to the emotionally damaged protagonist that he should offer her his word in marriage.

But that is not enough for the 57 year old woman that I am to recommend this book to others, given that I know mostly people of a similar age and gender. This book may mean something else entirely to a young man, especially one who is old enough to be sent to war.

If I were teaching a poetry or lit class or even an African history class at a university, I could see adding this to the reading roster. It would provide an opportunity to address how it does and doesn't work as a poem about this subject. Douglas's review linked above says that he read this in conjunction with another book on an African colonial conflict and that it enhanced his experience of both books. So this may be a book that requires a certain reader and a certain context.

Thanks, Jen. I ask the same about war/battle/trauma books -- have I had enough of them? Maybe we're fatigued with them (at our age) because they are dead-centered on male experience, which is certainly valid but we've had a lot of it. It depends on the approach. One of the best books I've read in the past five years is War and Turpentine, a WWII book. After reading it a few years ago, I bought copies for my mother and husband, both of whom also loved it. I've read a lot about WWII.

I guess not surprisingly I didn't know of the Mau Mau war, which sounds horrifying. I've read Adam Foulds' The Quickening Maze, which was excellent, but can't say it tempts me to read this narrative poem.

Thanks for your interesting review!