THAT GORGEOUS FEELING
by SUEYEUN JULIETTE LEE
reviewed by STEVEN KARL

 

Coconut Books, 2008.

 

My first introduction to Sueyeun Juliette Lee was the Coconut Chapbook; trespass slightly in and then her chapbook from Octopus, Prefect Villagers.  that gorgeous feeling is Lee’s first full-length book and it doesn’t disappoint.  The filmmaker, Wong Kar-wai is known for his lushly filmed scenes of heartbreak and isolation, as well as, being an Eastern director that was largely influenced by Western directors, Goddard and Antonioni.  One of the most exciting things about Lee’s book is her ability to sieve and examine the East/West confluence throughout the book.  It builds a multi-textured discourse, which like Wong Kar-wai films warrants repeat visits. 

The first section, “Yellow Fever,” collects 11 untitled prose poems.  Lee’s use of intelligence and acute lyrics make my eyes swoon:

My younger sister is time for desperation. She causes
you to stop with her agitated stance.  She is a perfect
ideological yin, made wireless and catlike, bending
receptively, all the time contriving to keep paper
shades pulled tight around her body.

The image of  “wireless” and “catlike” automatically sends my mind to imagine the image which momentarily freezes the poem much like a movie blurring into a still.  Throughout the book, Lee is more than adept at writing poems that take a cinematic, otherworldly quality.  Her narrative is sometimes non-linear which draws the reader in and gives you room to get comfortable, to acclimate yourself into the poem’s world. 

In Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express Faye (Faye Wong) works at a noodle stand and blares the Mamas and Papas.  Kar-wai does this to subtlety show the West’s influence in the East.  Lee uses her craft to similar effect in the second section of her book, which is entitled, “That Gorgeous Feeling.”  The section begins with the poem entitled, “Nanjing Road,” which is located in Shanghai and has been given a major face-lift post-WWII. Today it is one of the most explicit examples of Western influence on commerce as it aspires to become a world-renown shopping district on par with Champs Elyees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York.  Here’s Lee’s poem:

Wildness like velocity.
Strapped into a residual persistence.  Make up.
Get up. Fall down.  Outpour.

Tell him who the real man is
being in front of the mirror,
dark shadow elongating
a macho spine.

Semi demimonde.
Slowcore soundtrack sets
this lady right,
or how she lays in bed
reaching.

The poem captures the excitement and anxiety of this busy street by using short burst of alternating staccato, “Make up.” “Get up.” Fall down.” “Outpour.”  then ends in a singular image of a bedded woman “reaching.”

Section three, “Certain Heroes,” consist of poems written to David Wu, Mike Honda, Eni Faleomavaega, and a host of others. Lee’s ability to infuse humor into ideas of cultural identity and ideologies both relaxes mouth muscles and, in some instances, sweetens the sting.  Section four, “Perfect Villagers,” keys in on the ethical complexity of politics, both private and public.  “Kim Jong Il: A Reader” is one of my favorite poems in the collection and this poem has Lee hitting on all cylinders which reminds me just how harrowing and beautiful a poem can simultaneously be:

Have (( something )) snatched away.
become.  be [exhausted] impoverished. stained.

a.       a limit.  limits; bounds.  “Human desire knows
          no limits.”  as [so] far as. as far [much, soon].
          as much as one can.  as much as possible.

that gorgeous feeling is as heavy as it is inspiring.  It is as explicit as it is subtle in its exploration of humanity.  Its terrain is one of politics, modernity, and ethnicity.  Its a collection of double-tongues espousing desire with hatred, freedom with repression, and heroes and villains It is not necessary to know Wong Kar-wai films, or Margret Cho jokes to fall in love with Lee’s book— all you need to know is that humans are complexed beings and this book requires both your brain and your heart.