I received this book from River Street Writing in exchange for an honest review.
“The first line/of my eulogy is this: ‘I would cross/the River Styx for you.’ I would,/I honestly would,” (Ramoutar 9, “Baby Cerberus”).
Ramoutar’s newest poetry collection does a perfect job of balancing light-heartedness and grief, of looking back towards the past and finding joy while also regretting what used to be.
There’s a lot of millennial nostalgia here, from mentions of Tamogatchi’s and Pokemon and various other pop culture references and also quite a few references to Greek mythology which I loved. It brought back a feeling of simpler times, of childhood when joy was easier to find but when at the same time we were discovering sorrow and heartache for the first time. A time when things were good but the first hints of the hardships of life were making themselves known to us.
Some of my favourites in the collection include “Tamogatchi,” “Lavender Town,” “Baby Cerberus,” “Asphodel Lullaby,” “Briseis (Reconstructed),” “Galatea,” and “The Midnight Society.”
Baby Cerberus feels like being lost in a dream, of slowly immersing oneself into memories and instances that may not make much sense at first glance but like all dreams have deeper meanings below the surface. I adored this collection and can’t wait to read more of Ramoutar’s work.
Publication: October 1 2024
Publisher: Buckrider Books
Pages: 86 pages (Paperback)
Source: River Street Writing
Genre: Poetry, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
The poems in Baby Cerberus are ethereal, soul-stirring and suffused with a playful intelligence. Natasha Ramoutar’s second collection traces joy and kinship across a multitude of lives and lived experiences. Shifting deftly from classical mythology and folklore to video games to speculative futures, each poem asks us to consider how we care for one another. As we move through sentient galleries, swashbuckling adventures and the doors of Atlantis, the collection reorients us in each section with a riddle, always inviting the reader to play along, tugging on the invisible threads between us all, trying to find what tethers us together and, in turn, what keeps us here. Joyous and multilayered, this is a book that’s fast enough for the speed of information and powerful enough to stop you in your tracks.
Sarah O'Connor 