This debut collection explores memory, cities, motion. Tung-Hui Hu's tone has some of the swampy wit that recalls Calvino or Michaux: A man swaps bodies with his lover; a mapmaker holds captive a city, which needs his crystal telescope to navigate through streets "unreadable as palm lines"; a car pushed off a cliff in a fit of anger becomes home for a school of fish. Anchored by the sequence "Elegies for self," Hu's poetry brings a quiet sophistication to syntax, diction, and form.
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"Distillate, metamorphic, these elegant poems by Tung-Hui Hu work magic on the page. In an age, too often, of surfeit and stall, they chart the deft alignments of silence and sublimity, minimal brush stroke and maximal wit, the deadpan ad-lib and the swerve of philosophic penetration. The Book of Motion is above all motion of mind: a joyous—and joy-engendering—debut."--Linda Gregerson, winner of the 2003 Kingsley Tufts Award
"A splendidly elegant work of poetry and prose."--Clarence Brown, Trenton Times
"To read Tung-Hui Hu is to feel in the presence of a fresh, new voice. He's read his Tate and his Simic, absorbed their intelligent strangeness and humor, then with great brio and precision has discovered how to go his own way. The Book of Motion is an exciting debut."--Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Different Hours
"The Book of Motion has a contained surreal style that deftly shapes a philosophical argument that somehow remains pure lyric."--Los Angeles Times
"Tung-Hui Hu's extraordinary The Book of Motion stuns by degrees. Here all is precarious, nothing is safe; yet awe and delight have not been banished. These poems earthquake the expected, creating a psychic and linguistic landscape that unsettles, jolts, and sears. A radio report is 'derailed by a news flash,' real estate agents stand 'armed with walkie-talkies barking at / half-finished meadows.' In a chess player's mind a waitress turns 'with slender legs into a heron.' Hallucinatory yet precisely anchored in the quotidian, these are deeply memorable poems."--Laurie Sheck, author of Black Series
"Perplexity and wonder are integral parts of Tung-Hui Hu’s poetry, which is as elegant as it is surprising. . . . This aggregate of conflicting imagery is characteristic of the work throughout, which is haunting and mysterious, yet inexplicably vivid and tangible. . . . [An] intriguing debut collection."--Mark Tursi, Rain Taxi
From the Publisher
Winner of the Contemporary Poetry Series competition
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent.,
By
This review is from: The Book of Motion (The Contemporary Poetry Series) (Paperback)
Tung-Hui Hu, The Book of Motion (University of Georgia Press, 2003)
The Book of Motion opens with one of the strongest poems I've read in quite a while, and that's saying something. "...The people who live here, stringy men, wispy women, as if spun from clouds, they are capable of greater passions than us: one man, infuriated at his car, the lemon that had cost him a life's savings, drove it to the canyon edge and cut away the metal cord that coupled the car, the rocks...." ("a rock a fish") If the whole book were as mind-numbingly good as "a rock a fish," this would be the first five-star book of 2005, and a shoo-in for my ten best list. Not to say that the book overall is not good; it is. It's very good. But Hu starts off with such a strong piece that some of what comes after is anticlimactic. This is not really his, or anyone's, fault, and it doesn't make the book any less worth reading. There is a great deal to like here, and I recommend this book as highly as I've recommended anything that hasn't gotten five stars in the past few years from me. This is excellent work, but it's one of those cases where some is more excellent than others. Tung-Hui Hu is a name you should know; get acquainted at your earliest opportunity. ****
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book of Emotion,
This review is from: The Book of Motion (The Contemporary Poetry Series) (Paperback)
These images are stunning. I feel these poems touch things in our souls that we can all relate to and yet they can be so haunting.
The use language is masterful and accessible; I felt myself smiling and nodding. I highly recommend this book and this author. I can't wait to see what comes next!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow,
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This review is from: The Book of Motion (The Contemporary Poetry Series) (Paperback)
I agree with the previous reviewer. An outstanding, haunting book. So much of what wins the awards these days is mundane, boring, or pretentious. Not this. An excellent read. If you need to clear your mind of all the poetic clutter out there and get back to why poetry really does matter, read this book.
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