I'm still in the process of working out how to use this blog, and I think the eventual answer will be to try to link it to a personal website, so that I can share some thoughts on the daily process of writing, themes that are coming through in the book I'm working on, and stuff like that. Meanwhile, though, I've just spotted that you can link Goodreads reviews into your blog, and I thought I'd use that to say how super I think Very Cold People is. Here's the review, but I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Clearly, from the reviews, this one isn't for everyone; but I thought it was simply superb. Manguso's style is laser-sharp, scorchingly focused. Tiny broken epithet-like nuggets of structure, reminiscent of David Markson; but the voice is far more personal in this book. The calm, relentless unpicking of a childhood freighted with strangeness (especially from the narrator's mother) feels at times like a blend of poetry and therapy. Oh, and her other stuff is fantastic, too.

Read it for the astonishingly assured structuring and style; and for the painful nostalgia of a childhood seen through an adult lens that only now understands what was missing. Maybe take some breaks from reading to listen to some boygenius, too, and then just have a good cry ;-)



View all my reviews