it

This book will always haunt me because it was thrown back in my face by someone who is now a stranger and was once a good friend (or a stranger doing an excellent job of posing as a good friend). Poetic, no? Quite possibly not. Such "It" is. But having said all that, the poems are good in this small book, made of wood and good to chew on for a winter's night. People are shadows moving through the prisms of our changing eyes - poems are not. Poems do not change - we do. Friends do not change - they wither and explode.

For me, poetry mostly either clicks immediately or falls flat. With "It" I needed to give the work some time and effort.

One of the most significant books from the 20th century. From Genesis through maturity to facing the existential truths. A masterpiece in an impressive translation!Still, worth the effort of learning Danish!

There is something downright compelling and almost addictive about Christensen’s works, in the strangest and most peculiar senses. I would say, without a trace of doubt, that this is not the work of hers to start with if you are not familiar with what she does and how. Be sure to read ‘alphabet’ before attempting this, as to say the least the collection makes for a most challenging and baffling exercise from the outset before things start to congeal and emerge from primordial linguistic ooze in that inimitable way the author so excels at. I’ll admit if I had not been exposed to her earlier works which laid the foundations for what Christensen ambitiously proposes to do and intricately sets about laying into place in ‘it’, I’m fairly certain I would have laid it down and tapped out, thus missing out on the pleasures and triumphs it patiently works its way into eventually, would then - pursuant to that hasty assessment - similarly have dismissed the other shorter more accessible entries in her bibliography which are each every ounce as excellent in their own distinctive ways. Just a word of warning to the wise, a delicacy this makes for, but most agreeable to the initiated, perhaps too exotic or potent for those who have not yet developed a taste and tolerance in their palates for.