I am always looking for more poetry to read and while I wanted to love this, it was just okay. Maybe it just wasn’t relatable so I couldn’t really connect with what the author was trying to say.
I think it could’ve been better

This collection is very much a literary academic's poetry. The prose is lovely, there's an unflinching honesty so bold I felt like an intruder in places, but overall it was impossible for me to connect with. The descriptions, places, stories told; it speaks to a particular class, lifestyle, education, that I just can't relate to. The author does paint vivid pictures, and evokes emotion well. I struggled to get through this, there's points where the author is, most likely unintentionally, less than kind in his portrayal of the women he writes. I would caution content warnings for certain themes as pertains to post partum depression, miscarriage, and death.

I am slowly dipping my toes into poetry, and Fraser's collection is a good place to start. There are some literary devices but not so many that the poetry feels like you have to trawl through to find meaning. He uses a variety of forms throughout the collection, which would appeal to a lot of different readers. If you're new to poetry or just looking for something contemporary, I would recommend this one.

Gregory Fraser writes a poetry collection about his experience of being a man and farther-hood. Although I have not had children and is not an experience I can personally relate to there is a lot in this collection about personal change. "I miss the self I was with you, he said. His face was letter torn to pieces and taped together".
Although not every poem was for me I do think Fraser has a great use of language and it portrays a clear message to what each poem is portraying.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is about to or has experienced becoming a farther.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Little Armageddon is a book of poetry depicting the daily life of a man, love and fatherhood. Each poem is deep and rich in description about struggles, highs and lows and the book is divided into three parts.

This poetry wasn't something I particularly enjoyed but I read every poem but just couldn't connect with it. Maybe this is because I am female I'm not too sure.

This book of poetry was an okay read I just had a horrible time trying to get into this. I thought I was going to love this.

The longest thread running through Gregory Fraser’s Little Armageddon is a powerful one: family. And while Fraser nails the mix of judgment and tenderness many individuals feel about their relatives—be they parents, spouses, or others—his verse falls flat. With the exception of the final poem, “How the Poor Fly,” which is overly long and overwrought, no poem here is more than a page and a quarter, yet each piece is difficult to slog through thanks to an unimaginative vocabulary and a sense of near-boredom, as if the speaker is dispassionately viewing a scene rather than participating in it. Fraser would do well to jolt his future manuscripts alive with more emotion and less bland observation.

The man who is all business, who keeps himself
on the short leash of a necktie, pumps my hand
and invites me to dine. With its strict dress code,

the restaurant keeps a sports jacket at the coat check.
Whose life hasn’t been that jacket,
hung in shadow, furred with dust, waiting to be filled

by another stranger? A man hands me his business card,
asks for mine. How should I know my business?
The world is my business, and none of my business.

--
The poem from which the above excerpt is taken is a strong start to this collection. And a symbol of what the best poetry does -- infuse the otherwise mundane in this world with meaning, emotion, heart, (in this case) melancholy. And then there are poems that start strong but seem to go nowhere, in the end; e.g., "Like Angels", "A Gathering". The poems in Part 2 are more of a meditation on marriage; these didn't leave such an impact on me. Part 3 finishes strong with "The Pot" -- a look at a troubled upbringing, and "How the poor fly", an extended ode to the resilience of the poor. This is more "prose poetry", so often lacking in stylistic beauty but fairly accessible and sometimes even affecting.