Book Review
Title: Speculate: A Collection of Microlit
Author: Eugen Bacon & Dominique Hecq
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Poetry
Rating: ***
Review: I recently read Eugen Bacon’s The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories and really enjoyed it but I didn’t know much about Speculate other than it is a blend of prose and poetry and that it is the two authors “replying” to each other in a way so I was really intrigued to see what the mere 136 pages had in store for me. I have to say before I begin this review I have a love/hate relationship with both speculative fiction, which at times I can find confusing or lacking purpose, and poetry, which I find rather boring unless it is a topic or theme that really catches my attention. That being said I felt I had to read more of Bacon’s work since I loved The Road to Woop Woop which was at times confusing, strange and yet utterly delightful at the same time.
Part 1 is Bacon’s prose poetry and Hecq’s response to them. Part 1 was very hit of miss for me, with poetry, whether it is straight poetry or prose poetry it doesn’t seem to resonate with me as a reader unless there is some visceral imagery or some deep connection emotion to tie everything together. There were moments in Part 1 where the words really captured me and drew me in but most of the time it seemed quite disjointed and left me a little confused about what Bacon was actually trying to convey as most of the poems don’t seem to tie in together or having a unified theme or message. That being said, I really enjoyed Hecq’s responses to the poems which did resonate with me a lot more and I found myself understanding their messages through the response rather than from the prose poetry itself. Hecq also at times conveyed exactly what I was thinking or feeling in response to particular sections of the text.
Part 2 is the opposite of Part 1 as it is Bacon replying to Hecq’s prose poetry. I was looking forward to this section as I enjoyed Hecq’s response to Bacon’s prose poetry more than the prose poetry and I was excited to see what Hecq would come out with. Part 2 was better for me as it had a bit more coherency that Part 1 in terms of the prose poetry but again, I found myself enjoying the responses the prose poetry more than the actual poems.
Overall, I found I had a love/hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, I loved both author’s responses to the other prose poetry and I really connected with the ideas presented in the response. However, on the other hand, I didn’t really enjoy the prose poetry as it seemed to lack coherency or any unified theme or message to carry the read through the book. While I will mention that there was some stunning imagery presented, I found myself feeling a little confused at the end about what the purpose of the book actually was as there didn’t seem to be one. I think my 3 star rating is fair for how I felt during and after reading this book, however, I will say if you enjoyed speculative fiction and poetry in ways I do not then you will probably enjoy this book a lot more than I did. Despite this I will definitely be keeping an eye on what Eugen Bacon publishes since I loved The Road to Woop Woop and I will definitely check out anything else Dominique Hecq has published to see where she is an author I would read from in the future.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: The Invisible
I received this copy for review consideration from the publisher.
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