In each issue of BUST, Amber Tamblyn reviews a book of poetry. From our December/January 2016 issue, here’s her review of “The Book Of Goodbyes” by Jillian Weise:
If you haven’t read The Book of Goodbyes (BOA Editions) by Jillian Weise, get thee to a slinger of literature, STAT. The theme of this gloriously sassy and direct collection is strength — inward and outward, metaphysical and metaphorical. There’s no victimization in Weise’s writing, only observational wit about the crippled world that surrounds her. In “Café Loop,” Weise plays voyeur to two peers dishing on her career and disability (she had a leg amputated) while eating a nice meal. “She’s had it easy, you know. I knew her/from FSU, back before she was disabled. I mean she was disabled but she didn’t/write like it,” says one voice, while another chimes in, “Do you know what it is exactly?/She used to wear these long dresses/to cover it up. She had a poem/in The Atlantic. Yes, I’ll take water.”
And in my favorite poem, “I’ve Been Waiting All Night,” Weise orders a guy sleeping next to his girlfriend to call her so she can tell him the twisted story of a man who exhumes his dead mistress, much to the dismay of his wife, so he can fuck her once more. Weise is a BUST kind of girl: fearless, flawed, and oh so divinely funny.
Photography by Michael Lavine
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