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The Ada Poems

by Cynthia Zarin
Knopf. Sept. 2010. c.80p. ISBN 9780307272478. $25. POETRY
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Nothing is what it seems in Zarin's fourth collection of poetry (after The Watercourse). Loosely based on Nabokov's novel Ada, a story of incestuous love, Zarin's book fuses allusions to Nabokov with references to contemporary events. It also combines erotic images with those that seem childlike. Zarin, who is proficient in both free and formal verse, includes many exquisite contemporary sonnets. A Yale professor, contributor to The New Yorker, children's book author, and winner of the Lavan Younger Poets Award in 1994, Zarin begins the book in medias res. She draws the reader into the narrative line with arresting metaphors reminiscent of those by Theodore Roethke and with cliff-hanger endings. She weaves quotations from Ada into the poems; some serve as epigraphs, others as part of the text.
VERDICT Although somewhat distracting, Zarin's technique adds resonance, helping the poems to work on several levels and giving the book a frenetic Alice in Wonderland atmosphere. With its deft wordplay and polished style, Zarin's collection offers a chilling poetry of double meanings that will appeal to sophisticated readers.
Reviewed by C. Diane Scharper, Towson Univ., MD , Sep 01, 2010
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