Limón’s characteristic voice is casual, even chatty...and warmly personal ... Gratifyingly varied in its structures ... Limón’s best work displays, to borrow a line from the Irish poet Medbh McGuckian, 'a kind of flying-heartedness' — it’s garrulous, funny and heart-on-sleeve even when being a little wicked ... The aggressively colloquial presentation allows Limón to set some much pricklier ideas in play ... The revelation at the end feels appropriate, and the nicely judged consonance ('kill,' 'carrots,' 'can') underscores it ... Limón’s attentiveness to readers is a considerable strength; it can also be a weakness. Her writing sometimes seems eager not simply to speak to her audience, but to actively court it ... But if Limón’s writing can at times lead her audience by the hand, at least it provides steady, capable guidance.
With Startlement, Limón demonstrates her brilliance, gathering 21 new poems and 102 from her previous books, all of which precisely observe life with emotional clarity ... Limón’s older work reaps epiphanies from memory...and the natural world...and recent poems...continue that arc.
A well-edited grouping of work that serves as an introduction for those unfamiliar with Limón’s writing and, for her fans, an access point for earlier poems from out-of-print books ... Limón’s ability to connect the individual to the universal is fully displayed here. The more recent poems show this to impressive effect ... An essential choice for any collection of modern American poetry, suitable for a broad audience.
Captures the mind and soul with exquisite linguistic mastery and vision that will compel readers to earmark every other sentence. Limón raises the standards for elegy, needling the heart with surgical, diaphanous, and cathartic reverie ... Limón’s voice is humble despite its nearly omniscient acuity, weaving her experience into the greater human condition. With its devastating wit, magnetic power, and arresting ingenuity, this volume is one of a kind.