Talking in the Dark: A Poetry Memoir

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: i read "talking in the dark" over a year ago and it has still stuck with me. even though this memoir is told through poetry, it is very easy to read and understand. you can really relate to what merrell has gone through. this book is definately an amazing undiscovered gem. i highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The first gay book I've related to. Life-changing.
Review: I'm a lesbian. I'm 20, not really a teen. But a friend told me about Billy Merrell's TALKING IN THE DARK because she knew I loved poetry, and it has since become one of my favorite contemporary collections. And not only that, but I found in Merrell a place to feel comfortable. Not only because I'm gay and so is he, but because he happens to be gay, and so do I. He is so wise for his age. My mother is reading it now, and that is what she told me.

The poems are smart, emotional, revealing. Merrell strips his life down to amazing, telling lines that left me wanting it to go on and on. I've read it twice already and am taking my time reading it a third time now, and there's always something new and beautiful to find in the rereading. My favorite poetry is personal, careful, and spiritual (not religious, necessarily, but intensely in touch with the world). That's what the poems in TALKING IN THE DARK are like.

If you know someone, anyone, who reads poetry, this is a book that will affect them, always.

Rating:
Summary: The first gay book I've related to. Life-changing.
Review: I'm a lesbian. I'm 20, not really a teen. But a friend told me about Billy Merrell's TALKING IN THE DARK because she knew I loved poetry, and it has since become one of my favorite contemporary collections. And not only that, but I found in Merrell a place to feel comfortable. Not only because I'm gay and so is he, but because he happens to be gay, and so do I. He is so wise for his age. My mother is reading it now, and that is what she told me.

The poems are smart, emotional, revealing. Merrell strips his life down to amazing, telling lines that left me wanting it to go on and on. I've read it twice already and am taking my time reading it a third time now, and there's always something new and beautiful to find in the rereading. My favorite poetry is personal, careful, and spiritual (not religious, necessarily, but intensely in touch with the world). That's what the poems in TALKING IN THE DARK are like.

If you know someone, anyone, who reads poetry, this is a book that will affect them, always.

Rating:
Summary: Touching life experiences with surprising vulnerability
Review: I'm a little confused as to this book's classification as YA. Sure, there were sections that dealt with his childhood, but the most straightforward, poignant, and powerful poems were those that dealt with very mature topics: specifically, *after* he graduated from high school.

Some of the poems, particularly those dealing with his friend Ben and the dissolution of his relationship, are very touching. Some are a little confusing, and I found myself backtracking to figure out who was being referred to in the poem, what the topic was, and its relevance in that particular place. Poetry, it seems, is intentionally misleading at times, and I find that to be an annoying characteristic.

That said, I myself have a wealth of experiences from elementary, junior high, and high school that are ripe for writing, as they are devastatingly powerful. In my own writing classes and seminars, teachers have literally begged me to write about them, rather than the "typical" YA that I'm working on, which is more fantasy based. The problem was, I didn't know how to do it. I didn't want to write a straightforward story, because the format just didn't seem right. This book has given me some insight onto how to put my experiences onto the page. So for that - I'm greatly indebted. (Especially if I get published. <grin>)