Absolutely gorgeous. Porter blends memory, thought, action, and dreams impeccably. The writing style is fabulous.

3.5 stars. Some of these poems really resonated with me but some didn’t. Gorgeous work if you love interesting word choice and melodic intonation. This particular volume is massive.

I’m still processing but overall I can say that this book had very interesting events and themes but I’m not a huge fan of the writing style. I realize that this is Hemingway and that’s essentially sacrilegious but it’s true- there’s an awful lot of repetitive dialogue that runs on and on with few non-dialogue bits in between. It becomes messy/ hard on the eyes and a bit redundant. While I liked some of the more philosophical questions the book raises and some of the anti-war sentiments, the women portrayed in the book all felt like they were designed a bit like pastiches of classical characters. Just a warning that this book is old after all and it does have slurs like f*g and k*ke and has racist bits, though I expected it given the age. Also, the title is a dick joke so, ya know...