Shakespeare for Sociopaths by Kristin Garth

Shakespeare for Sociopaths Reviews

• 
  J.D. Estrada

  Does the sound of noir sonnets sound interesting? Then get this collection. I discovered Kristin Garth last year reading Pink Plastic House and was blown away. A truly unique voice, she is impressive through word usage as much as dark scenes she evokes. once again I get to enjoy an annotated version of her collection and I insist that if you get a copy, you get an annotated one. Throughout the entire collection, Garth offers an insider look at the inspiration for her sonnets to confirm what you get from the poem and sometimes it's the news but quite often it's from personal life.
  
  Without getting to 20% of books I mean to read this year I already know this will be one of my favorites. Dark, disturbing, occasionally erotic, Kristin Garth is hell bent on taking you down a very dark path where she shows that pain, abuse, and frustration can lead to amazing things if you choose to use what life has given you.
  
  Can't wait for the next collection I get ahold of and Garth has quickly become a must read poet for me.
• 
  Jesse Hilson

  A POSTERIORI HORRORS
  Shakespeare for Sociopaths, by Kristin Garth
  Hedgehog Press, 2019
  
  I have infinite fascination with Kristin Garth's writing, but alas, readers are finite creatures. By that I mean, there is such a profusion of work by her -- over thirteen books that seem to have all come out miraculously within a year of each other -- that I know I am definitely limited in what I have access to reading at the moment. My resources are finite but if I could I would buy all her books and read them.
  
  Also finite is my ability to without envy read poetry which is so consistently good in its form and content, of which it is a near perfect amalgamation. There is an intimidation factor with her poetry. Internal rhyme sneaks up on the reader and disorients them like a blunt weapon, bluntness that is still elegant. The formal trickery of her poems seems effortless, like sell your soul good. So good, they're too good. As someone who tries to write poetry myself I have to look up to, respect, and fear both Kristin Garth's work and what I have to call her promotional operations to project that work out into a world to be shocked, moved, saddened, delighted, prudery-tweaked, whether it is ready or not. I wasn't. It's demanding and illuminating in the best possible way but like a sun that rises whenever I look online I have to look away occasionally.
  
  The book Shakespeare for Sociopaths, since it was in paper and in my hands, was harder to look away from. I bought it from a third party vendor and thus did not get a chance to have signed and annotated by the author (a key part of the experience I gather, as she apparently explains some of the mysterious qualities behind the poems; I don't know because like a fabled creature I have not yet seen this).
  
  Another stretched metaphor: if the poetry twitterverse were an ecosystem, a biome, Garth's poetry would be a kind of interconnected system of impossibly flowering ferns which are to be found everywhere, around every tree, are sumptuously beautiful -- and dangerous to behold. There's a lethality to her poetry, which I hope does not come across as a criticism per se, but a feature for readers to be aware of. The content of her poetry in Shakespeare for Sociopaths, like much of what you'll see of her with online, seems autobiographical, at least partially informed by real life encounters with sociopathic individuals, usually men. We're told by a prefatory note and by the note on the back of the book that some are fictional but nearly all bear the ghostly traces of experience, either directly or indirectly.
  
  There is always a lot of ferment in literary circles over whether art should put forward the world as it could and should be vs. the world as it is. I'm sure if someone spent more time with the whole breadth of Garth's poetry one might construct a view of the former as though from glimpses of a forest seen from the balistreria of a revolving prison, but the overwhelming impression formed by one's first encounter with the poetry, with all its bruises and scrapes, is that it is a poetry of a posteriori things as they are, as they are sadly felt yet removed from the writer by form and style, experiences of a dark world of abuse. Oftentimes this viewpoint in time registers as dread, the intellectual approach to a horror that has already "happened." There is a reflection that would be missing if the poems were just viscerally graphic and shocking; the sonnet form is utilized as a kind of protection amulet, for the reader if not for the writer.
• 
  Anne

  I am not a great one for writing in set poetry forms… I’ve tried some and struggle with complying with the rules. I will keep trying though as I know it is an excellent way to hone your craft. The form I find most difficult is the sonnet. Fourteen lines of fixed-ness requiring great discipline. Kristin Garth has certainly mastered the craft in her book “Shakespeare for Sociopaths” and her sonnets are a delight. Yet it seems strange praising this excellent book when the actual topics are so dark.
  
  The internal rhymes, the alliteration, and assonance show great virtuosity as we delve into lap dancing, stripping, sexual assault and ‘roofies’. Yet Ms Garth shows a distance required of the discipline while emotionally laying bare. There is a sense that you’re reading thinking ‘oh this is lovely’ as the words trip smoothly, rhythmically off your tongue and then you are brought to a standstill with lines like:-
  
  “ ….On pills, You’re cold, anaesthetised. You’re far too young to hypnotise…”
  “ “Could put you in a house” and I refuse to be his sanctuary of abuse.”
  “She swallows sick suggestions. They swim inside her skin. Stress she sucks in silence, synthesises sin"
  
  There is depth here. Depth of hurt, of angst, of anger, bewilderment, and bemusement. But there is also a great depth of talent and I will be revisiting this collection many times. Well done Ms Garth.
  
• 
  Miss December

  Truly exceptional. Kristin Garth is one of the best poets out there today, and it shows in her work. Some poems and images are forgettable after having read them, but the ones in this book are not examples of those. All of the poems are fantastic- there's not one weak sonnet in the entire group. You can tell the author put a ton of effort into her writing and they are all memorable. I can't wait to read more from her.
• 
  Isabelle

  Kristin is a master of the sonnet form. Haunting and beautifully thought out. A joy to read such intimate work.
• 
  Brigid Hannon

  Stunning words from a powerful poetess!