A Film in Which I Play Everyone, by Mary Jo Bang

Book number 59 for 2024; 4/5 stars.

It’s hard, at least for me, to rate and review poetry. Maybe I’m not smart enough to get all poetry, or maybe it’s not meant to be “gotten,” sometimes. One thing that struck me while reading this particular volume was that poetry, when done well, is quite intimate. I believe that it allows the poet to express themself in ways that a typical novel doesn’t allow. Poetry can be autobiographical without overtly seeming so.

The title of this volume was taken from a quote by David Bowie, and that is described by the poet in the notes section at the end of the book. In right at one hundred pages, we get probably 75 or so poems, most less than a single page, a handful bleeding over into a second page. The imagery contributes to the intimate nature of poetry. I enjoyed this book, and maybe even got what the poet was trying to say a few times.

For example, “A Set Sketched by Light and Sound” seems to be about women being mistreated and always being told what to do, how to be. A sense of rebelling against what is the “norm” in a society run by men. In “I Am Already This Far,” I got a sense of the poet writing about experimenting with who one is. We all do this at some point, right?

I believe my favorite poem of all was “No Questions,” in which the poet writes, “because you are a woman and this is what you were taught women do.” More along the lines of “A Set . . .” 

In some ways, this collection of poetry could be depressing, but at the same time, they offer hope that, perhaps, things might change.

I would recommend this collection for anyone interested in contemporary poetry that pushes against societal boundaries. Or maybe I don’t really know what I’m talking about.

TTFN, y’all!