Love, Anyways: Because The Apple Trees Blossom written by Thanh Dinh was heart breaking, powerful, inspiring, honest, emotional, and deeply moving. I have never heard of this author before, but goodness gracious she broke my heart with nearly every poem she wrote, I will definitely have to read more by Thanh Dinh in the months and years ahead. I went into this poetry collection blind and I'm so glad I did because it made the poems that more emotional, you just didn't know what you were going to get with each turning page. What actually caught my attention was that beautiful flowery cover and the title- Love, Anyways: Because The Apple Trees Blossom. Poetry isn't really my thing, but when authors write poems that deeply move you to tears or their poems resonate with you, then poetry is worth reading in my honest opinion. The only thing I will say is that NOT every poem is going to be for everyone, whereas other poems will directly speak to a reader. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into this book blind, but I sure as heck didn't go in expecting my heart to be shattered with nearly every poem that was written by this talented author. In my review, I will list a few poems that directly touched my heart, but please just keep in mind that a certain poem might not touch you the way it did for me. -Cara N.
I absolutely loved this collection of short stories. (Almost) every single one touched me in a unique way in their humanness. I do not think I can pick a favourite, nor do I want to.
I can say, though, that especially the story of Mr. Nguyen and the psychiatrist resonated with me personally. I of course don't share Mr. Nguyen's experiences with war, but I have my fair share of experiences with psychiatries and psychiatrists, and the way the psychiatrist so stubbornly insisted on being right, on having the one true answer, not even entertaining Mr. Nguyen's own interpretations of his experiences, his own thoughts and wishes, reminded me (sadly) very much of my own experiences. The dismissive attitude towards hallucinations - "the point of hallucination [sic] is that it's never real" - is something I have met so many times, and something that ignores the impact hallucinations have on the person experiencing them. They ARE real, as real as it gets, and if you cannot acknowledge this, that is the first step to failure; as is the insistence on "the good of society", ignoring the individual, their circumstances and wishes. The individual does not matter in this system. The aim is to whittle away at them until they can safely be "released" back into society, regardless of what this means for them.
Similar themes on the human condition are found in all the short stories, and really, if I had to choose which stories touched me the most, which were my favourites, I'd probably list 90% of the stories in this collection. The prose is absolutely beautiful, making me want to read these stories over and over again, and I'm very glad I chose to pick up this collection. Definitely recommend, 10/10. - Jennifer B.
