2022
With strong assertions and slight, unexpected touches, the author forms surprising connections. At times the texts can almost seem absurd in their claims, at other times so simple that it’s intense, staggering. The poetic first-person is tormented by her shame and regret, trapped in a life of apathy and isolated rage.
Why Am I So Sad When I Am So Cuteis an unsentimental poetry collection that moves with ease between humour and deadly seriousness.
Sexuality, death, decay, and then this resting bitch-face. We like it. We like it very much.
Though really, Lothe is just doing what male writers and poets have always done: giving space to an imperfect, sometimes gloomy, sometimes happy person – only here she is female. That in itself is a political act.
The poems portray a rawness, a sadness, and are sometimes very relatable. And I like it. I'll probably enjoy myself much more with this before it’s time to return it. [...] Recommended!
This is poetry with attitude: ironic and hurtful, nonchalant and despondent, all at the same time [...] 100% honest? It is at the very least 100% contemporary.
Ingvild Lothe is taking over as Norwegian literature’s Houellebecq girl.
With her debut collection, Ingvild Lothe shows us that poetry does not have to be solemn and serious. She walks the line between humour and an underlying vulnerability, and writes well about being a vulnerable young woman in a hypersexualised world.
Ingvild Lothe
Stephen Butkus
