Title: Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems
Publisher: Mormon Lit Lab
Genre: Poetry
Year Published: 2022
Number of Pages: 93
Binding: Paperback, ebook
ISBN: 979-8797250760
Price: $9.99
Reviewed by Theric Jepson
Scott’s poetry is deceptive.
By which I mean it seems so simple at first glimpse in language and concept that it cannot possibly be any good winkwink.
But in fact, it is possessed of the simplicity that is key to excellence. Like Darlene Young or William Blake.
I’ve previously read a hefty percentage of these poems before, one place or another. And several of them are in fact important to me. Poems I am grateful to reread. And some of them, though I could easily summarize them for you, still manage to surprise me.
The books is split in half: “Afterlives” and “Lives”; the first half covers his series of poems discussing folks in the afterlife (such as Hemingway) and the second half covers the living—himself, his contemporaries and those from long ago when they too were alive.
The poems range from achingly personal (the volta in “Lucy”) to the faux-serious absurd (finding the nudists at “Muir Beach, 2013”) to the powerful metaphors found in simple moments (“Brother and Sister”)—and those are just within the contemporary poems!
Scott has no problem dancing away from reality, either. One of the poems new to me was a telling of one night at the Nauvoo Relief Society’s Dungeon & Dragons club (Lucy Mack Smith is dungeonmaster). To come back to my thesis, each sister mentioned has an appropriate character (of course Eliza is a changeling bard), but upon reflection, none of the women are quite one-to-one with their character. There are details to puzzle out. What seems like a simple metaphor—or even a joke—in fact has much, much more to offer.
Hemingway in Paradise is a friendly volume that will be fun to pick up and read any page from at any moment. But it’s sticky. And the ideas it presents and the questions it asks also a reward more measured and thoughtful visit.
If you haven’t purchased any poetry in a while (or ever), start here.