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Franny Choi: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (2022, HarperCollins Publishers, Ecco) 4 stars

Many have called our time dystopian. But The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes …

The Apocalyptic Poetics of Everyday Life

4 stars

This is a surprisingly good poetry collection. I pick up recently-published poetry books from time to time, and I don’t normally love them. Choi’s book is different.

There are all the major trendy topics in here (as of 2022): recognition of difference and diversity, attempts to “touch grass,” and trying to find meaning when the world doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know how well the individual poems stand in terms of verse and meter, but the imagery was beautiful.

Even so, I think this one will be forgotten in ten years, regrettably so. It feels very much a product of its moment, and I do think this is valuable, but I’m not sure that future readers will.