Official Review: But God by Tinika L Cudjoe
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Official Review: But God by Tinika L Cudjoe
"But God" A Book of Poetry by Tinika Cudjoe is a chapbook that artistically explores her thoughts, feelings, and reactions to worldly issues. Her independence is clear in how she has written about the issues that, mostly, affect women, while others can resonate with men as well.
Cudjoe freely looks at the concept of peace and its ultimate attainment. She questions the practicability of contentment and examines to what extent it stretches. She also foregrounds rape, especially when it is perpetrated by family members and even highlights how flawed the justice system is at dealing with rape cases. Moreover, the author interrogates her relationship with God and the subsequent relationship between death and salvation.
There are a lot of positive things to note about this book. First, its simple writing style is so enriching. The author said so much without unnecessarily being wordy. Her economy of words is skillfully done, where she allows a reader to explore the thoughts suggested by making mental notes and, in so doing, the reader takes part in the recitation of the poems. I also loved her use of rhetorical questions; more than any other stylistic device used in this book, the rhetorical questions completed Cudjoe’s ideas without literary directing the reader on which line of thought they should take.
The author has written her poems from the first-person point of view. I, therefore, enjoyed denoting meanings from her viewpoint. This allowed me to empathize with her fears, worries and even made me agree with her on some topics, for example, the fact that some mothers are unprepared for postpartum lifestyles and may even resort to extreme measures like abortion or subsequent hatred for their babies.
The author’s skillful manipulation of ellipsis is equally commendable. I rarely like books whose authors force me to think along a certain line of thought. However, Cudjoe’s broken lines in some stanzas enabled me to explore various paths and trails of thoughts. Her incredible use of ellipsis invited me to engage her and interrogate her perspectives and principles of life.
There is absolutely nothing that I liked least about this book. I did not find any typos as it is professionally edited. I rate it four out of four stars and recommend it to lovers of poetry. The liberal religious viewpoint will also ensure that readers across all denominations and religions can enjoy this book with no inhibitions, whatsoever. However, those who find sensitive topics such as abortion and rape unbearable may not enjoy it.
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But God
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~ Scott Hughes
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