Macnolia.Macnolia by A. Van Jordan W.W. Norton & Company, June 2004 $23.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-393-05907-3 The jacket copy of A. Van Jordan's second book of poetry, Macnolia, describes the collection too narrowly as a "nonlinear narrative" based on the life of MacNolia Cox. Cox, in 1936, "became the first African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. finalist in the National Spelling Bee Competition." But the character of Cox figures as archetypal, more than merely historical. That Cox was "supposedly prevented flora winning" provides the familiar and quintessentially American pathos necessary for poems as blues inflected in·flect v. in·flect·ed, in·flect·ing, in·flects v.tr. 1. To alter (the voice) in tone or pitch; modulate. 2. Grammar To alter (a word) by inflection. 3. as these. Jordan does craft a postmodern bildungsroman bildungsroman (German; “novel of character development”) Class of novel derived from German literature that deals with the formative years of the main character, whose moral and psychological development is depicted. in verse around the spelling champion. He evokes her character from the heydays of competition into her workaday life as a domestic. The poeta "In Service" is in the voice of MacNolia's employer, who boasts his family's luck in hiring her. He refers to the one time medical school aspirant as "the best damn maid in town." MacNolia's husband takes the stage occasionally to model the hardships of African American men at mid-century, and between the lover's voices we glean the story of a son taken early by the Vietnam War. The story is indeed compelling, but the strength of this book is in the telling. Jordan is a wizard at capturing vernacular in both conventional forms and those of his own invention. Using the form of dictionary citations, for example, Jordan expands the meanings of culturally specific prepositions ("from," "with," "to"), taking liberty to wax narrative, to achieve a rare lyricism and emotional insight. The book is full of hypnotic repetitions and the metaphysics of the very act of "spelling," with its intimations of witchcraft, ate subtly conveyed. MacNolia asks the announcer to repeat a word in the poem "On Stage." She hears the many words in the one as "the magic words in a potion po·tion n. A liquid medicinal dose or drink. potion a large dose of liquid medicine. ." Jordan's pleasure in the language is contagious and restores, at least, some sense of justice. Reviewed by Gregory Pardlo Gregory Pardlo lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Medgar Evers College Medgar Evers College (MEC) is a college campus (offering bachelor's and associate's degrees) of The City University of New York. MEC was founded in 1970 through cooperation from educators and community leaders in central Brooklyn. , CUNY CUNY City University of New York . |
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