REVIEW: “Absolute Animal” by Rachel DeWoskin

Image Courtesy of The University of Chicago Press.

REVIEW
absolute animal
by Rachel DeWoskin
Paperback, ($19)
The University of Chicago Press 

By Alexandria Knapik

Rachel DeWoskin’s book is a journey through feelings, behaviors, and actions. The poems within act as a bridge of expression between how all living fauna act on their experiences. There are tales of traveling, taxidermy, fear, the loss of a father figure, and everything in between. The perspectives range from within, be that an inner animal, an inner child, or whatever voice that controls someone’s impulse. There is unbelievable range in the way these messages manifest, such as through rhyme and content:

…he has a fix for anything we break. i’m

sick this year, my voice back young again, some fear:

dad? can you help me here?

Then the range moves to a humorous anecdote using meter:

heading west were forty-six babies, crying sirens, row

after row of tiny people propped on airline logo

pillows, strapped with seat belts, plane a cartoon

of cuteness, cooing, napping, looking about…

to the ever so relatable aspect featured throughout:

my god we learn hospital language fast

Via the middle of a group of poems that take the reader from feelings from childhood about a father daughter bond, to adulthood and longing, through the full lifecycle of that relationship until her father’s sickness. It’s truly a bit of a tear-jerker and keeps attention well. The fact of its relatability and further notions of subjects one could only describe as science, history, etymology, and more are what makes it so captivating. Not to mention it’s a local fixture both in physicality and in story in the literary scene, with the author and publisher being based in Chicago, the University of Chicago respectively. The verses are brief but incredibly moving, bringing readers from the animal world to the home, through the past thirty years, and the darkest corners of awareness. DeWoskin even uses material matter to describe rituals born from feral instincts. It feels risky in the way that it’s written with the messages the poems convey. The subject matter of the poems is highly visual and sustains their wild energy throughout. Not to mention the force of the prose and speedy flow of the text. Rachel DeWoskin captures the space in between experience, surroundings, and the natural behaviors in that space. Addressing only what readers would suspect from the title, referenced regularly. As she writes early in the book, which is where most of the nature/animal-oriented poems live:

beauty is dangerous: whales, spiders, stars-

we made time, time made us, these hours? ours

This is where she sets the tone for where these instincts of ours, as humans, come from. Asserting a haunting truth previously rarely considered in everyday circumstances. Reading DeWoskin’s book inflicts a previously unknown acknowledgment of how humans behave upon those who read through it. It’s a great option for new and advanced poetry readers because of the lack of cons. It’s brief enough to squeeze into a travel bag without sacrificing space, but it will demand your full attention. I was left wanting more, checking to see if the library carries DeWoskin’s other written works, and replaying the imagery in my head. The simplest way to put it is that absolute animal is a phenomenal poetry book and it will unlock parts of your brain and heart previously untouched.

Disclaimer: There are several poems, pages 25-30, which are entirely or partially written in languages that I cannot read. It’s noted by the University of Chicago that these excerpts are meant to draw connections between languages, and they incorporate translations from poems “dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty.”

Alexandria Knapik is a curator, organizer, artist and writer living in Chicago.

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