The Year of Goodbyes by Debbie Levy

Levy, Debbie The Year of Goodbyes, 127 p. Hyperion, 2010. $16.99.  Content: G.  Deborah Levy intersperses pages from her mother’s (correction) autograph book, circa 1938, Hamburg, Germany, with short, supposedly poetic musings on the chronology of World War II.  While Levy has the interesting addition of her mother’s (correction) album, the material she writes does nothing to add to the body of Holocaust literature that already exists.  I looked up poetry in the dictionary, wondering if I was missing something – this is what it says: “Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making") is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.  Where are the aesthetic qualities, the evocative meanings?  Nowhere.  I would, instead, stick with something else – like Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine.  EL – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library-Teacher.