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calarco 's review for:
The Sun and Her Flowers
by Rupi Kaur
Given just how impactful I found [b:Milk and Honey|23513349|Milk and Honey|Rupi Kaur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1491595510l/23513349._SY75_.jpg|43116473], perhaps unfairly, from the get-go I had high hopes for Rupi Kaur’s [b:The Sun and Her Flowers|35606560|The Sun and Her Flowers|Rupi Kaur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499791446l/35606560._SY75_.jpg|57044162]. Comparatively, I found this second collection of poetry to be lacking and underwhelming compared to the first.
For starters (and clarification), I think that Rupi Kaur is a talented artist. I enjoyed her first book so much, I actually gifted it to a couple other people in my life, as I found it to be almost like an advanced exercise in empathy with universal value. I know her writing style has been criticized for lacking refinement, though given my own background from an immigrant family, I really enjoyed how she embraced writing in lower cases and phrases as a form of artistic storytelling. When you learn a new language, anything short of perfect diction is commonly seen as unpolished, so it was refreshing to see a style in the vein of polish-remover being utilized as its own aesthetic.
I also really enjoy her at times brutal, at times tender, brand of extreme honesty. This ultimately led to, what I considered to be, a really refreshing form of authenticity in milk and honey. Sadly, in comparison, the sun and her flowers feels almost like an underdeveloped afterthought that could have used some additional germination (terrible pun intended). I appreciate many of the sentiments Kaur shared, but this particular stream of consciousness felt unrefined in terms of any substantive direction. Rarely can style alone make up for deficient substance.
That said, I’m afraid I was not a fan of this one, though I am likely the minority opinion. I doubt this will deter me from future work from Kaur, but it does leave me disappointed in the meantime.
Rating: 2.5 stars
For starters (and clarification), I think that Rupi Kaur is a talented artist. I enjoyed her first book so much, I actually gifted it to a couple other people in my life, as I found it to be almost like an advanced exercise in empathy with universal value. I know her writing style has been criticized for lacking refinement, though given my own background from an immigrant family, I really enjoyed how she embraced writing in lower cases and phrases as a form of artistic storytelling. When you learn a new language, anything short of perfect diction is commonly seen as unpolished, so it was refreshing to see a style in the vein of polish-remover being utilized as its own aesthetic.
I also really enjoy her at times brutal, at times tender, brand of extreme honesty. This ultimately led to, what I considered to be, a really refreshing form of authenticity in milk and honey. Sadly, in comparison, the sun and her flowers feels almost like an underdeveloped afterthought that could have used some additional germination (terrible pun intended). I appreciate many of the sentiments Kaur shared, but this particular stream of consciousness felt unrefined in terms of any substantive direction. Rarely can style alone make up for deficient substance.
That said, I’m afraid I was not a fan of this one, though I am likely the minority opinion. I doubt this will deter me from future work from Kaur, but it does leave me disappointed in the meantime.
Rating: 2.5 stars