Review of In the Land of Myth

[Nina Brown 7]

[Following is a volunteer review of "In the Land of Myth" by Bernard Kuckuck.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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In the Land of Myth scores a solid four out of five in my opinion. It is a truly passionate collection of poetry that while not perfect, is absolutely worth a read.

The vast majority of my takeaways from the book were positive. Author Bernard Kuckuck weaves a beautiful linguistic tapestry that spans the full spectrum of human emotion from the point of view of the famous bard Orpheus. This collection of sonnets is a love letter to the ancient stories of the Mediterranean that will delight and entrance any fan of classical mythology. There are a variety of famous tales and characters referenced throughout the collection, but it never feels meandering or out of focus. If anything the vastness of the scale of present in the verses helps to flesh out the character of Orpheus who is famous for being a wayfaring bard.

Kuckuck shows off his skills as a polyglot by using a variety of languages throughout his poetry so as to best convey the emotions present in his work. Following the author's talent with languages, I was not able to find a single typo or grammatical error in the text which I was very impressed by.

I don't have a lot of negative criticism of the text, except that there were parts where I felt that the language used in the sonnets could be a bit repetitive. For example Orpheus’ love interest Eurydice was often referred to as nymph, and while not inaccurate to the myth I found it really jarring how emotionally charged the verses used to describe her appearance and personality could be but the language used to refer to her as person could be quite repetitive. Ultimately besides the repetitive use of certain words and phrases I have no real criticism for this collection of sonnets, but this particular issue is what kept me from rating it a five out of five.

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In the Land of Myth
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