#5 Make Lemonade? How About Make the Pieces Fit...

When I found out that my class would be reading a novel that was written in verse I was extremely excited. I love poetry, and I guess I have a bias about poetry, because I am a poet. Make Lemonade was definitely a different read then I am use to. I have read epic poetry and then individual poems that form a story, kind of like a puzzle of poems one must put together to figure out the story. Make Lemonade was a form of puzzle that we as readers were suppose to put together, but at some moments it was hard to form the pictures in the story, and then sometimes hard to appreciate the overall story because of the jagged edges of the poem pieces that sometimes fit, and most times did not. I believe that Wolff mixed prose and poetry in a way that did not work so well for this book. If she was going to do poetry, then make the story poetic, meaning the language, the scenery (make it concrete for all the five senses), as well as other important elements. The poem, in majority, made me think of prose chopped and fitted to what poetry is ‘suppose’ to look like. The narrative throughout the book and the points and lessons made were in-depth and engaging, but the format and word usage lost the appeal as a whole work of art. Furthermore, I do believe Young Adults would be further confused then I did. I believe the only way an author will successfully draw a young adult audience with a story in poetry, is to have a prose poem or have stanzas of poetry connecting the dots and thereby story in each one.