Book Review: A Clock of Human Bones

A Clock of Human Bones

by Matthew Borczon



Review by Julie Carpenter






It almost doesn’t seem fair to write a review of this book, because any time you spend reading about it is wasted time. You should be reading Borczon’s poems instead. This is an important book, a needle-sharp distillation of the horrors of war delivered right to the soul in a short, sharp volume that has far more depth than its slight length would suggest.
 
This book is a collection of poetry about the author’s time in a military hospital in Afghanistan, where he was deployed in 2010.  The images he has extracted from his work there are visceral.  His powerful words help the reader to feel his experiences and it’s a dark journey, but an important one.
 
For those of us on the outside, who only understand war from a distance, it’s surely impossible to see the effects of war on so many of those around us who have been
 
Just hour
after hour
standing in
blood
swallowing
fear
 
as Borczon describes it in his poem The Shit.  This book won’t let you off the hook.  The imagery compels empathy.
 
You can, and should, buy the book here.

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