{"id":10375,"date":"2013-11-08T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T04:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=10375"},"modified":"2013-11-07T23:24:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T03:24:30","slug":"toi-derricotte-weekend-guests-from-chicago-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2013\/11\/08\/toi-derricotte-weekend-guests-from-chicago-1945\/","title":{"rendered":"Toi Derricotte: “Weekend Guests from Chicago, 1945”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toi Derricotte\u2019s \u201cWeekend Guests from Chicago, 1945\u201d was first published in the November 4, 2013 issue of The New Yorker<\/em> and is available\u00a0here <\/a>for subscribers.<\/p>\n

Betsy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWeekend Guests from Chicago, 1945,\u201d by Toi Derricotte, explores memory, beauty, women\u2019s physicality, and coming of age. It also is a lovely mix of elegy, admiration, and affection. Derricotte\u2019s territory, says Poetry Foundation (here<\/a>) is \u201cracism and identity,\u201d and this short poem mentions and suggests all manner and mix of black and white.<\/p>\n

This is a wonderful poem. I really like thinking out loud about poems, but that isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s style. If not, just read the poem!<\/p>\n

Anyway, down to brass tacks. Right off, I was knocked out by the musical perfection of \u201ccaramel Cadillac,\u201d not to mention its whammo visual evocation.<\/p>\n

Similarly, I liked the sound of \u201creign queen\/in a diamond ring\u201d — all those n\u2019s. There\u2019s more of this kind of echoing sound: a trumpeting of “tuh\u2019s” that celebrate Walter, a scattering of “wuh\u2019s” that sigh in admiration of the Pullman porter who \u201cwoke\u201d the speaker.<\/p>\n

As for visuals, I enjoyed suggestion of contrast in Walter\u2019s tan jacket against his skin, that contrast also reminding me of Walter and Julia (dramatically) emerging from the caramel Cadillac. The poem shimmers color all over itself — the flour turning the chicken white, the coffee that turns you black, the \u201cfloral robes\u201d of the women, a bit of coffee to transform the baby\u2019s cream, the color of the cold cream against the speaker\u2019s skin, the way the stockings transform, the color of the \u201ccaf\u00e9-au-lait\u201d admirer, and the way that color suggests transformation. Of course, this is not just color for effect, it is also the way color is not a fixed thing, either physically or symbolically or socially.<\/p>\n

(I also like the way the lait suggests lay, the way the French suggests a different world, the way the color of \u201clait\u201d is echoed in the sound of \u201cwait.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The music and color turn the deliberate prose of the poem into poetry; but it is the compression of time that makes the poem soar. We fly from the high style of Julia and Walter in 1945 to the lives that had made their style possible, to Julia\u2019s affair, and then forward to 1960, when the speaker is fifteen and visits Julia in Chicago. The motion of time is echoed in the train rides, the car trips, the men going out to play golf, the bottle being stirred with cream, the \u201cgentleman\u2019s\u201d hand \u201cgently shaking my rump.\u201d<\/p>\n

I love the double-shifting at the poem\u2019s end — the shock that Julia had a wart, and the second shock that she wore it with \u201cunforgettable style.\u201d The poem has convinced us of already of Julia\u2019s style, so we believe in the double-shift-shock at the end, and we believe in the beauties set side by side, the blond Marilyn and the dark Julia.<\/p>\n

What touches me is this: that we know Marilyn is unforgettable is commonplace, that Derricotte has matched Marilyn and raised the ante with making Julia also \u201cunforgettable.\u201d<\/p>\n

This poem reads easily, all of its arts making the way smooth, like the track on which the train rides. While I enjoy the oceanic challenge of some complex poems (Eliot more than Stevens), I also enjoy the challenge the writer takes on when she tries to be as clear as the water in a lake. Some topics deserve that effort.<\/p>\n

I also like the warmth of it, the feel of family, of ritual, and of coming of age being a part of continuity — the \u201csteamy women\u201d in the kitchen telling stories. I like the women\u2019s physicality — that Julia \u201cslaps the flour\u201d on the chicken, that the porter gently shakes the fifteen year old\u2019s girl\u2019s backside.<\/p>\n

Reading her makes me want to order that Kindle, so I don\u2019t have to wait to read more. I notice in the Poetry foundation article that she has published five books of poetry and a journal. I\u2019m interested in a poet that also is willing to write essays. I\u2019d like to see how she does it and what she has to say.<\/p>\n

I know there\u2019s more to the way this poem works, but I do enjoy the way the poem has stayed in my memory in the couple of weeks since I first read it. I like it for itself, but I also like it because it suggests to me a way to be 70 (Derricotte is about 72). I like that. If you\u2019re older, you have a yen to tell stories to leave behind. If you are an unpracticed writer, however, you can get lost in your own story. This short, clear, musical, vivid, surprising poem provides a model for putting a lid on what you write. This seems obvious, after you\u2019ve read the poem. I like the energy I feel after I\u2019ve read the poem. Also, I love the Munro aspect of the poem\u2019s personality: it\u2019s original, beautiful, and difficult at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toi Derricotte\u2019s \u201cWeekend Guests from Chicago, 1945\u201d was first published in the November 4, 2013 issue of The New Yorker and is available\u00a0here for subscribers. Betsy \u201cWeekend Guests from Chicago, 1945,\u201d by Toi Derricotte, explores memory, beauty, women\u2019s physicality, and coming of age. It also is a lovely mix of elegy, admiration, and affection. Derricotte\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[467],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-toi-derricotte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-2Hl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10376,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10375\/revisions\/10376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10375"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}