The speaker in Samantha Jones’s debut, (NeWest Press, 112 pages, $24), reorients the kitchen, the office, the cafe and places between them to reflect her experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * The speaker in Samantha Jones’s debut, (NeWest Press, 112 pages, $24), reorients the kitchen, the office, the cafe and places between them to reflect her experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? The speaker in Samantha Jones’s debut, (NeWest Press, 112 pages, $24), reorients the kitchen, the office, the cafe and places between them to reflect her experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Jones accomplishes this remapping using images, graphs and various textual techniques, including repetitions and lines that write over one another, as well as innovations to traditional forms. Part exploration and illumination and part manifesto, the collection is a moving and galvanizing mix of acceptance of self and defiance of cultural dismissal. Jones uses form to capture both the obsessive, circling thoughts and their accompanying gestures.
In , the repeated lines focus on the speaker’s repeated hand motions, while the other unrepeated lines track her attention: “careful attention to product lifespans/ mindful shopping a relief from torment/ dispelling worries of my buying hands.” Jones ends on a pot.