Book Review
Title: Life on Mars
Author: Tracy K. Smith
Genre: Poetry
Rating: ****
Review: Many of my readers will know I don’t read a lot of poetry often but this short collection apparently has a real sci-fi theme to it and the cover is stunning, so I couldn’t resist picking it up. The collection is split into four parts so I will be reviewing each part separately then concluding with my thoughts on the collections as a whole so you can expect this review to be a lot shorter than my regular reviews.
Part One really captured not only the essence of our race into space and to explore the universe beyond our small part, but it also caught the feeling of hope, longing and sometimes utter hopelessness we feel as humans knowing that big thing, we dream of will never occur in our lifetimes. My two favourite poems from this part were Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes? Which was a really interesting look at what is within us as people, what lies around us and the impossible things we are always reaching for which I just found extraordinarily beautiful to read. However, I adored Savoir Machine, it is one of the shortest poems in this part but it really hit home for me and it doesn’t even have a sci-fi theme. I interrupted this as the relationship between a therapist and their patient and the bond that develops between them even though both parties know that relationship can never go anywhere no matter how strongly we feel about which just really struck a chord with me.
Part Two is the shortest part in this collection containing only two poems. The first poem The Speed of Belief was obviously written in memory of the author’s father but it resonated with me as I lost a beloved family member a few years ago and I remember feeling some of the things the author manages to convey. These emotions surrounding grief, death and ultimately letting go are some of the most difficult to put into words and Smith did a beautiful job of crafting something that conveys the range and depths of these emotions while also retaining a mysterious quality to them as they are unique to each and every one of us. The second poem It’s Not was short and sweet and it reminds us that even though we lose people they are never truly gone unless we believe them to be and that in itself is the greatest loss of all.
Part Three contains the poem after which the collection is named; Life of Mars and this poem was really interesting to read as it alternated between sci-fi and asking scientific questions to real world atrocities like kidnapping and rape which is something I haven’ seen done before and the way Smith makes the connections between science and behaviour in this lyrical way was astounding to read. By the time we reach the end of Part Three I was beginning to see how beautifully Smith is able to tie scientific terms like pressure and dark matter to emotions or events we have experienced or heard about in our every day lives which was not only beautiful to read but it created a reading experience where nothing you were reading was insanely unique but felt completely new, untouched, and almost pure in its delivery.
Part Four I think is my favourite part in the whole collection with Aubade and Willed in Autumn being my favourite poems as they really look at the more human elements of life. The more mundane aspects we tend to overlook but end up shaping a huge part of who we are.
Overall, I believe Life on Mars was beautifully written and presented poetry collection and I liked how the author explained certain titles or poems at the end knowing there would be some people that might not get the references made in the poems which was a nice touch. I’d highly recommend Life on Mars to people like myself that aren’t normally big fans of poetry as it was beautiful to read and very quick too taking me less than a hour to read the entire thing cover to cover.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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