The Favorite

The Favorite is, in Cig Harvey''s words, "an arrow to the heart." Its sixty-four poems are gently shaped into three parts as Watson leads readers into her childhood''s world of social privilege, recognizes the psychological costs inhabitants pay, and demonstrates a wide and wonderful range of reactions.

Most of the fifteen poems in Part I are based on childhood memories. Four sisters ride uncomfortably in the back seat of the big car, ordered not to wrinkle their Sunday dresses, while their brother "rides shotgun and wears what he wants." A girl manages to paddle around in an old canoe, but her sense of freedom comes from keeping herself hidden, or pretending she''s Pocahantas. Gender norms strongly favor the family''s only boy, and its powerful, charismatic father, whose presence inspires awe and fear, compliance and rebellion. Straight women, passive women, pretty and well-dressed women-enjoy, question, and are damaged by their privilege. In "Another Hurricane Comin