Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
A Pillow Book
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
9 posts | 6 read | 3 to read
Not a narrative. Not an essay. Not a shopping list. Not a song. Not a diary. Not an etiquette manual. Not a confession. Not a prayer. Not a secret letter sent through the silent Palace hallways before dawn. Making a daybook of oblivion, A Pillow Book leads the reader on a darkly comic tour through the dim-lit valley of fitful sleep. The miscellaneous memoranda, minutiae, dreamscapes, and lists that comprise this book-length poem disclose a prismatic meditation on the price of privilege; the petty grievances of marriage, motherhood, art, and office politics; the indignities of age; and the putative properties of dreams, among other themes, set in the dead of winter in a Midwestern townhouse on the eve of the end of geohistory. Feather-light in its touch, quixotic in its turns, and resolutely deadpan in its delivery, A Pillow Book offers a twenty-first-century response to a thousand-year-old Japanese genre which resists, while slyly absorbing, all attempts to define it.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
slategreyskies
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image
Mehso-so

I wasn't thrilled with this book. It's not that it wasn't written well. I think it's simply that the format (a series of lists and vignettes) didn't agree with me. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I would recommend it.

37 likes1 comment
blurb
slategreyskies
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image

This one is up next! 💚💜💚

Kalalalatja Pretty cover 👌 7y
slategreyskies @Kalalalatja I think so too! 💙 7y
41 likes2 comments
blurb
Redwritinghood
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image

#bookmail I took advantage of the sale Amazon had last week to grab a few items. I definitely need to renew my resolution to buy fewer books, though. I've promised my husband not to purchase any during the month of March. I'm still expecting a few that I ordered in February to arrive in March, though, so hopefully I won't have too severe withdrawal symptoms.

tpixie 🌈🍀 7y
Redwritinghood @tpixie Thanks. I'll need it. 7y
47 likes2 comments
review
Erin01
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image
Pickpick

this is a bit of a strange poetry collection but overall I really enjoyed it & am glad I pick it up
🌟🌟🌟🌟

review
amandaabend
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image
Pickpick

A Pillow Book, Suzanne Buffam‘s 2016 book of poetry, is a great companion for anyone struggling with sleep. During the darkest hours of night and through the early hours of morning, at dusk or dawn, the poems in A Pillow Book possesses the hypnotizing ability to lull readers into a restful trance.

quote
Erin01
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image

saresmoore Windmills. 😊 7y
LitLogophile This book looks really interesting - are you enjoying it? 7y
Erin01 @lostlogophile yes so far its pretty good, there are some pages that I like better then others & I decided to read a few pages here and there between other things I'm reading rather then reading it all straight through, which is definitely making my reading experience better I think 7y
40 likes1 stack add3 comments
quote
Erin01
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image

38 likes2 stack adds
review
laurabradburywriter
A Pillow Book | Suzanne Buffam
post image
Pickpick

This book, written by my friend and Serious Poet (she's won so many prestigious literary prizes I'm not even going to try to list them here) Suzanne Buffam, made me think poetry has been missing in my life. I read it every night before falling asleep (it is a pillow book, after all). Suzanne's sly humour and intriguing lists followed me into my dreams. I could completely relate to the surrealism of trying to combine a writing life and motherhood.