Averno by Louise Glück (Farrar, Straux & Giroux) – Reviewed by Vikki C.

A beautiful poetic lament interweaving landscapes of myth, oblivion, ecology and the soul, Averno journeys deep into an elegiac realm between ruin and spirit. Glück's stream-of-consciousness style brings a sense of protracted time and discovery. A state which examines the elusive rift in the human condition. 

"Winter emptied the trees, filled them again with snow.

Because I couldn't feel, snow fell, the lake froze over.

Because I was afraid, I didn't move;

my breath was white, a description of silence." 

(...) 

"The world / was bleached like a negative; the light passed / directly through it. Then / the image faded." 

The vernacular here is one of post-memory, where overland seasons meet underworld evocations of the Greek myth of Persephone and her marriage to Hades. A breathtaking vision into the rapture of both ancient footprint and starkness of ages to come. Glück invokes boundlessness, a poetry of revelation—and we will go on querying beyond the last line "To what would you lose a year of your life?"  

Averno is published by Farrar, Straux & Giroux and is available on Amazon.