Organs of Little Importance

De: Adrienne Chung, Solmaz Sharif

Narrado por: Adrienne Chung

“Mind detritus becomes the stuff of great art in the hands of poet Adrienne Chung . . . a poet in complete command of her craft.” —NPR.org

“Organs of Little Importance is a riotous feat . . . Ferocious. Funny. Deeply intelligent. Adrienne Chung leaves a charred wake.” —Solmaz Sharif, author of Customs and Look

From National Poetry Series winner Adrienne Chung, a debut poetry collection about psychology, love, and memory

Taking its title from Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Adrienne Chung’s debut collection asks why we cling so dearly to the vestigial parts of our psychologies—residues of first impressions, thought spirals to nowhere, memories that persist despite outliving their usefulness. The speaker in these poems tries to wear more color, indulges in Y2K nostalgia and falls in and out of love; a Jungian psychoanalyst has a field day with her dreams.

While Darwin was perplexed and ultimately dismissive of these seemingly useless body parts, Organs of Little Importance reframes and repositions the apparent uselessness of our compulsions, superstitions, errant thoughts, and other selves. In diptychs and ghazals, sonnets and lullabies, Chung collects and preserves pieces of psychological debris as one would care for precious heirlooms, revealing their surprising potential to become sites of meaning and connection.

Smart but cliché especially for this generation

Great diction! Innovative phrasing interspersed with unique metaphors. It’s a bit “sing songy” in some poems like ‘dungeon master’… for me the author’s life, which is the focus in most of this, is a copy paste of the “modern woman.” She’s a definite feminist with a laundry list of failed flings, over educated with limited career success, topped with abortions, drugs, and no relationship with a father and a crappy one with her mother. All of that seems to be mixed and remixed with endless therapy. Overall I liked the poetry especially in the technical execution very strong word play and cool style but the inadvertent cliché of this struggling tale is somewhat depressing and not really as unique as I think the author thinks it is.