The words “hunger” or “hungry” appear perhaps more often than any other in Peach State, Adrienne Su’s evocative new collection of food-centric, Atlanta-centric poems that grapple with the contours of Chinese American identity in a changing American South. “Father” and “Mother” and other familial relations appear frequently as well in a book that pays homage to the “generations / who have departed, but left instructions” (9) via the words of recipes and the imprints of memory. Although hunger is a consistent presence, Su writes that “the shape of hunger has progressed” (69), foregrounding the fundamental orientation of these poems toward modes, conditions, and moments of transformation, and toward the role that form plays in poetic and food practices. “Satiety” shows up just once, while “full” appears more often, in reference to a basket (5), an agenda (45), a house (49), a table (68), and a life (98).
In between...
University of California Press