Amazonaholic: "Loose Sugar"

My most recent Amazon purchase, Loose Sugar by Brenda Hillman, was referred to me by Beckian Fritz Goldberg. Knowing I will be working with Brenda Hillman while going to Saint Mary's for my MFA, Beckian thought this would be a good way for me to get to know her, stating that Hillman wasn't afraid to experiment or go outside of "writing norms".

Loose Sugar, exactly as it sounds; fragments of things that create the overall whole of life, or in Hillman's case, the story of her life. Some fragments are loose and things fall apart; some are so tightly wound together, they mold the facets of happiness and love; other times, just simply letting go and leaving things in fragments makes it easier to forget things. These are fragments of memories, emotions, and expefrience.

Hillman's book is divided into five parts: space/time, time/alchemy, alchemy/problem, problem/time, and time/space. The first three parts are very cohesive with strong imagery and focus on surroundings, people, and their emotions or desires. As the book goes on, things literally become fragmented; let me rephrase that, Hillman begins writing completely in fragments. Some pages have anywhere from one fragment to an entire poem of fragments, and other pages have footnotes of fragments below each poem. There is obviously a method to this madness and I understand the overall picture to be what I stated in the previous paragraph, but I feel like I need to pick Hilman's brain for details on her partial narratives!

Loose Sugar has provided and interesting, unique, and entertaining read as Hillman is very experimental in form, narrative structure, and literary devices.

Here is a strong and detailed article about the book, provided by the Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/brenda-hillman