The beginning of Danez Smith's "anti poetica" in Bluff starts "who cares how long i've spent with my poems" - and frankly, I don't. Many of these pieces are pure gimmickry; 'anti poetica' indeed. There is clearly a lot of rage and anger in Smith's work - and quite justifiably so - but when poets … Continue reading “Bluff”
Category: Reading
“Baumgartner”
It strikes me that, were a creative writing tutor to use Paul Auster's Baumgartner as a sample text, they might tell you that it was a good example of how not to write a novel. The reasons? Firstly, masses of 'telling' rather than 'showing'; and secondly, enormously long sentences - sometimes half a page - … Continue reading “Baumgartner”
“The Keelie Hawk”
On one level, Kathleen Jamie's The Keelie Hawk is impossible to read - that is unless you happen to be fluent in Scots. Luckily on every verso page is an English 'translation' of the Scots poem, all of which meant I could only read the translations and not the original poems. Given the musicality of … Continue reading “The Keelie Hawk”
“North Woods”
I really like Daniel Mason's work; The Winter Soldier is one of the best novels I've read in a long while. Consequently, I was looking forward to reading North Woods... But I'm afraid it wasn't in the same league. This wasn't down to the quality of the writing (far from it!) but rather the nature … Continue reading “North Woods”
“Petersburg Tales”
I suspect that, based on prevailing theory and practice, many would regard Nikolai Gogol's Petersburg Tales (written nearly 200 years ago) as an example of how not to write short stories. And with some justification. There are four in the collection, each of them surreal and comic in equal measure, and - given modern sensibilities … Continue reading “Petersburg Tales”
“The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman”
I was intrigued by the premise of Denis Thériault's novel, The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman. There seemed so much you could do with such an idea. But in the end I was profoundly disappointed, and for two main reasons. The first is that there is some clumsiness in the writing here and there, … Continue reading “The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman”
“Love, etc”
I must have read the precursor to Julian Barnes' Love, etc - Talking it Over - some time before 2017 because I can't find any review for it on this site. I was looking to see what I thought of the unfortunate Oliver back then given he is such an obnoxious and pompous dick in … Continue reading “Love, etc”
“Town & Country – New Irish Short Stories”
Given all the authors in Town & Country are Irish there should be no surprise at various common themes running through many of the poems: the city, the countryside etc. And, given this is collection contains twenty stories by twenty different authors, it is not something I would normally comment on in any detail (or … Continue reading “Town & Country – New Irish Short Stories”
“Statements”
Statements is an absolutely stunning collection of three plays by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. Written in the early 1970s, the plays lay bare the horror of what it was like to live in the racist South Africa of the time. I can only image how powerful and electrifying it must have been … Continue reading “Statements”
“Lapwing” & “Sky Mall”
I couple Hannah Copley's Lapwing and Eric Kocher's Sky Mall together in this review because they share two traits: the first is a significant degree of repetition in both subject matter and phraseology, and the second is a degree of the prosaic in the writing. Unsure what to make of Lapwing, I put it aside … Continue reading “Lapwing” & “Sky Mall”
Ian Gouge - Writer 