I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I began reading this book. Yes, a promising opening to a review, but any readers unfamiliar with Block and her writing style might be taken by surprise, too. If you feel so bold, prepare to be swept away by the flood of poetry, swirling with startling imagery, dark themes and shards of tales as old as time refashioned in the landscape of American culture.
Roses and Bones is not actually one book, but three shorter novels (novellas?) Block began publishing in 2000. Psyche in a Dress comes first and, as though anticipating how many unwary readers would open this book, hits us right off with free verse. The story follows one girl, the daughter of a Hollywood director, on a journey of growth and self-discovery in the guises of many characters from Greek myth. If you ate up such stories in grade school like I did, you’ll enjoy piecing together the references Block weaves in each chapter; for those who had more productive ways to spend their free time, you might end up spiking the book on the ground out of frustration. Or not, if you’re too sucked in by Block’s lyricism and deft word-craft already. Which you should be.
