Through a collection of prose poems based on true stories, A.M. O'Malley explores the relationship and reflections between mother and daughter, growing up outside the norm, and the clarity and confusion they bring. An emotionally messy breakaway from form that recognizes the need for non-standard expressions of non-standard human experiences perfectly.
I purchased this book in 2016, while I was traveling, camping, and hiking across the country. We stopped in Portland for a day off, and walked by a cafe that was doing live poetry readings. I've always been a sucker for poetry, and I'd never really had the chance to do something like this before. The author herself was actually reading it, which just made the reading that much more emotionally intense. Even better, as someone with severe mommy issues, this book basically slapped me across the face screaming to buy it.
I was really just coming to terms with how terrible my mother and I's relationship was, and this helped illuminate things for me in a way that I had noticed, but hadn't been able to verbalize myself. It also hit a lot of beats for me as someone who grew up moving frequently between pretty shitty living conditions, but still finding the comfort and nostalgia in it.
Even now, 10 years after purchasing it, this book still grabs my full attention with 100-some pages flying by. O'Malley perfectly balances the disappointing truth that my mother and I will always be too similar and too different to ever be close, with the comfort that this relationship has already been played out a million times before us and will again a million times afterwards.
Broken for You - Stephanie Kallos (2004)
Coming soon...
Let's Go to Golgotha! - Garry Kilworth (1975)
A short historical/biblical science fiction story about a vacationing family who decide to time travel to Jesus's crucifixion.
I found this story through some Reddit comments, though I don't remember the context. I used to be really into 60's and 70's science fiction in middle school, but the more modern I tried to go, the more I realized that the tropes had changed, and I turned my attention more towards murder mysteries. This was a nice reminder of all those sci-fi novels that I used to read back then.
Even though this story is very much about the crucifixion, it still really grabbed me as a non-religious person. It's not really a religious story, but more of an exploration into groupthink, societal pressures, how we think of our "savage" ancestors, with a little bit of the dangers of colonization and capitalism for good measure.
