I love Percival Everett's novels, but this poetry collection was really really hard for me to follow, probably because I'm not as familiar with poetry and musical terms. Maybe this one just wasn't for me.

I thought it might be interesting to try and read the poems alongside Chopin's piano pieces, but I found the rhythm and meter never quite matched the melody of Everett's writing enough, so I returned to reading alone. Even then, though, I never quite felt in tune with Everett's verses, as though I needed the further guidance of time signatures or ledger lines, dynamics or articulation marks. Overall, I simply must say I did not know about the collecting of these poems if they found commonality in each other beyond the names that gave them order. I've enjoyed Everett's prose that I've read, but his poetry eludes me in a way that seems more due to his writing than my misunderstanding.

Wow! Absolutely loved the poetry collection. It is quite heart touching and something that I have read after ages. Absolutely recommend and not a surprise given Percival's past work.

Thank you Red Hen Press and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Publishing date: 20.08.2024
Thank you to Netgalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

I expected: A musical collection of poems about loss
I got: Sonnet style poems about loss and identity
The book left me: Wanting to write a sonnet for my darling

Poetry style:
Poems are written like sonnets, but a little more experimentally

Amount of poems: 23 poems in the first section, 24 in the second

Features:
Two sections with very different poems, themes of loss, identity, creativity, meanings of things, uncertainty, and denial

Final ranking and star rating?
3 stars, B tier. This is a beautifully written collection of poems. The style is wildly different than what I had read earlier. Sadly this style was a little harder to read for me (in terms of speed). I found the themes relatable and well written into the poems.

Favorite poems:
A Major
E Major
F# Major
15 Sostenuto
4 Largo

Did I "get" this? Not sure. But there were quite a few poems that really moved me or made me think. I will read anything Percival Everett wants to write for me! It. sounds like a project that he was really into so I'm glad he has it out in the world!

short, sweet, and stunningly beautiful. percival everett has a true talent for conveying deep emotion and profound human experiences in just a few words. 

thank you netgalley for the e-arc.

I really enjoyed *Sonnets for a Missing Key*. The language is so inventive, and the way Everett weaves in musical influences from Chopin and Art Tatum makes the collection feel dynamic. I found myself reading it twice, and I’m sure I missed a lot that I'll catch on future re-reads. The sonnets explore some deep themes—relationships, spirituality, and the stories we tell ourselves—while still being accessible. This is one of those collections I can see myself coming back to again and again to uncover more layers.

(Highly recommend Chopin playing in the background while you read)

As much as I tried to, I couldn’t connect to this collection. Its poetry might be masterful in form, but the form kept overpowering the content, the poems flowed like music one to the other and, at the end, I couldn’t tell what it was all about and, unfortunately, couldn’t be moved by it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-ARC

I'm sorry, I am not sure that I know enough about poetry in general, about sonnets in particular, or about Chopin to properly give a review but I did find this to be a quick and pleasant read.

Favourite lines:

"When they told me you were dead I didn’t believe them, and I didn’t and I didn’t and I didn’t
I did when you told me. When you told me you were dead I believed you. Even then I had my doubts."

Decided to read because it's Percival Everett, but realized that I'm not trained to understand the meaning of sonnets (have the same issue with poetry). However, I enjoyed it for what it was and I'm itching to read more from him.

This book of poetry is ekphrasis at its finest! The collection is short, efficient, and structured like the art forms that inspired it: Italian sonnets, Art Tatum's jazz piano solos, and Chopin's famous Preludes. The slim 62-page book contains 47 poems. No poem is longer than a page. The first half of the book is sonnets, specifically Petrarchan sonnets. The second half is short couplet-based poems that end up forming quintets or sestets. All of the poems tie in with one of Chopin’s 24 preludes via their title. Like Chopin's Preludes, the poems are a little discordant—touching on really sad stuff then switching up quickly to something that feels more playful and high energy.

I like the second half of the collection a lot. The poems read like jazz, and I think this is the section that is mostly closely linked to Art Tatum’s piano solos. The quintets and sestets are very stream of consciousness and fast paced. They have nice repetition and are pretty to read out loud.

One of the most surprising things about this collection was the repeated allusions to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. I delighted in these unexpected references. Everett always has a surprise up his sleeve.

Thanks Red Hen Press and NetGalley for the gifted DRC book.

I finished reading SONNETS FOR A MISSING KEY and immediately read it a second time. I find it difficult to write about poetry. I enjoyed this collection as it moved from sonnets to pieces of different structure. There were some very memorable lines. At some point, I’d love to devote time to studying poetry in an academic sense. For now, I have to stick with these simple thoughts.

Percival Everett has become one of my authors in the recent years.
I was very intrigued by Sonnets for a Missing Key, but I have to admit it wasn't for me.
There were parts I enjoyed and admired, but overall I couldn't fully connect to it.
It's very inventive and I enjoyed the way language was explored through music and sonnets.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

It's Percival Everett. Just read it. You won't regret it. And if you listen, you might hear Chopin in the words.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this poetry book

This was a nice read and I enjoyed quite a few of the poems, this was a fast read and an enjoyable one as well, think I will start reading more poetry from now on

An Unsophisticate at the Tasting Table

Percival Everett is remarkable. I have been treated to a number of his works in the past few years, including the brilliant “James,” “The Trees,” and “Erasure.” His wit, insight, and humor just serve to delight.

Sonnets? I am totally unqualified to judge this collection. I have been exposed to very little poetry, let alone sonnets. I feel like an amateur at a vintage wine tasting event. These pieces were paired with the works of Chopin and Art Tatum– um, okay (?)

What I was able to do was savor bits and pieces of these works. I had to slow down, reread most of these more than once, not rush. So many quick ideas and musings hit home… and then vanished.

Some of my favorites:
“We climbed at the language , the idea that one climbs down. With a little practice, you said, we could, if we wanted, fall up.”

“When you told me you were sick I didn’t believe you and then of course, of course I did. When they told me you were dead I didn’t believe them, and I didn’t and I didn’t and I didn’t I did when you told me. When you told me you were dead I believed you. Even then I had my doubts.”

And, addressing my viewpoint…
“I wanted to see it. I wanted to be free enough to see it…I wanted to be that smart, that free.”

I enjoyed these rich creations, as much as anyone who is intimidated by the art form.

Thank you to Red Hen Press and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #SonnetsforaMissingKey #NetGalley

After loving American Fiction, based on Everett's Erasure, and his novel James, I was excited to get my hands on this collection of sonnets. Unfortunately, this really didn’t resonate with me. Some poetry collections cut right through to your soul, but this wasn’t one of them. I tried reading it in different moods and settings, but nothing clicked. The coherence of the tone felt absent, and I couldn't connect with it despite trying to search for hidden meanings and symbolism. While I love Everett’s dry approach to fiction, this poetry collection just isn’t for me.

Thank you Net Galley and Red Hen Press for the opportunity to review this collection.

I can appreciate the concept of this poetry and the way it explores language through musical elements. I know this collection won’t be for everyone, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to experience more conceptual and structured poetry, especially the music lovers and musicians I know! There were some lines that landed so strongly and had this rippling effect, lingering with you, causing you to go back to them—while a lot of the other lines were just well-written, but not as emotive. While I think some of these works might not be completely understood by some readers, there will be readers for whom this book radiates.

An enjoyable and evocative read, Although the overall structure and themes of the book were elusive to me as a first time reader of Percival James poetry, I will seek out more of it.

Truly breathtaking poems that really reflect Everett's talent. While his book James, is still, in my opinion, the best work I have read this year, and probably decade, (and a novel I re-read before reading this just to take notes on that masterpiece) Sonnets for a Missing Key does not need to live up to his magnum opus (or his other magnum opus Erasure) since it is different. And for what it offers, in the form of poignant and hard hitting poems, it delivers on. Hard. Feeling more like a passion project than any of his previous writing, here, Everett's entire collection of poems flow together, to not give anything away, like music to the ear in book form. In other words, gracefully and all well-connected. Something I hate when I read a collection of poems is when it feels like they were randomly chosen and don't work altogether. To me, it is something that plagues collections of poems. Gratefully, Everett makes his poems so precise in their well-chosen nature that make it, to me, worth an extra re-read in truly being able to not just dissect each on their own, but together as a work of art and looking back as to how it all flows together. Another issue I have, this time with poems on their own, is how simplistic sometimes they can be. I am a fan of short and to the point poems, yes, but I also find so many poems overly simplistic that leave the power of it to the lingering imagination of it's reader rather than providing much substance. Gratefully, again, Everett delivers on providing either direct poems that hit with their straightforward and raw prose or either simple and fundamental to the collection that fit in the line of "less is better". As a whole, a worthwhile read.