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Wild Surmise
Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel mourns the demise of his marriage and his life.Full of Dorothy Porter's customary bite and sensuality, Wild Surmise is an engrossing duet between two passionately estranged voices. An intensely moving verse novel of passions and vulnerabilities, love and death.
289 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2002
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68 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Porter
41 books49 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Eminent Australian poet. A rare proponent of the verse novel. Winner of The Age Book of the Year for poetry, and the National Book Council Award, for her verse novel The Monkey's Mask. She was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry in 2001. Died of breast cancer, 2008.
Eminent Australian poet. A rare proponent of the verse novel. Winner of The Age Book of the Year for poetry, and the National Book Council Award, for her verse novel The Monkey's Mask. She was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry in 2001. Died of breast cancer, 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 9, 2008
"This is the roof, the shield
of a black liquid word,
where you may one day
drop like a warm stone.
A new world
where you might learn
colder lessons
than nothing."
Alex Leefson is a well known astrobiologist, a woman whose public face has made astronomy popular, and who has become obsessed with finding life on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. In addition to her astronomical work, Alex is also obsessed with a fellow astronomer, Phoebe, with whom she is having a dead end but intense affair. Meanwhile, her husband, who she continues to love, is dying of cancer. These are the bones of the work around which the poetry is built. Or perhaps the poetry forms the bones and the narrative is built around that. Dorothy Porter's latest "novel" is composed in a series of poems, pieces which, in most cases, work perfectly well on their own, but together, add up to a complete narrative work which includes traditional narrative elements such as characterisation, plot, suspense and setting. It is very effective.
The power and beauty of Porter's poetry takes the reader instantly deeper into the character than a more traditional narrative prose would. It skips the conjunction, the "dialogue" and the external world, and goes straight for the emotional response, revealing the story in the personal pain and longings of the characters inner voices. The poems move forward as rapidly as any narrative fiction would, maybe faster, and centre around Alex and Daniel, her husband, alternatively taking one or the other's perspective, and sometimes first person. There are other characters as well, from Phoebe, the love interest, also a dramatic and glamorous astronomer who has discovered, along with dark matter, that the universe is moving apart, Alex's sexless friend and colleague Rachel, who is more a biologist than an astronomer, and Daniel's boss Brian Howard. These additional characters sit on the outside of the poems, teasing out the bigger issues which underlie the story - love, loss, passion, lust and mediocrity. Daniel's struggles with his illness, his life's work which has become meaningless to him, and most of all, with Alex's infidelity, both metaphorically and literally are an important part of the underlying narrative, as are Alex's struggles with her desperate passions, her calmer more pedestrian love for Daniel, and her alternative feelings of guilt and desire.
In characteristic Porter style, each of the poems is extremely powerful, using language in its most intense form, each word chosen for maximum impact. It doesn't take long to read Wild Surmise. Despite the richness of its language and the intensity of every word, the story progresses forward very rapidly, suspense building with each poem. The overall word count is probably a lot lower than a traditional prose novel would be, but the impact is higher, since the language is stripped of anything unnecessary. Each poem is almost an entire pulse or epiphany, a mini chapter, with its painful twist or revelation at the ending, funny, repulsive, but always meaningful:
"Nothing like fresh dogshit
to make the present
punch back."
The words are immediate, unsentimental, and harsh at times but mostly beautiful, leaving a lingering impression that the reader carries around after the book is finished.
"But you, darling,
were no ice-crusted
speck
teasing me
from a cold night sky.
You were always
ardently present."
Porter's fourth verse novel contains everything - love, death, passion, pain, loss and above all, the beauty and limitations of human frailty in a cosmological setting. Her astronomy is accurate and evocative - and Porter does make the reader feel the excitement and possibility of our most likely source of life in the solar system, the pathos of our quest and clumsiness as we destroy a living sea, and the very human need for passion, and peace. In a world where poetry is considered the unsaleable poor cousin of prose, Porter's books continue to sell, and compete for the big fiction awards. Her previous verse novel, The Monkey's Mask won the Age Book of the Year for Poetry, the National Book Council Award for Poetry and the Braille Book of the Year and was made into an international film in 2001. Her verse novel What a Piece of Work was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. It isn't that surprising. Although her poetry has a Plath type of wry inner power which simultaneously tortures and caresses the reader, it is very accessible and immediate. This is not "bush poetry", nor does it fit into any kind of academic or formal form. Wild Surmise is powerful because it combines the very best of fiction - its ability to create tension and a lasting and powerful narrative world, with the very best of poetry - where the most exacting, carefully chosen words, rhythms and structures allows the reader to bypass the limitations of sentence structure and get immediately under the skin of her characters and the story's themes.
of a black liquid word,
where you may one day
drop like a warm stone.
A new world
where you might learn
colder lessons
than nothing."
Alex Leefson is a well known astrobiologist, a woman whose public face has made astronomy popular, and who has become obsessed with finding life on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. In addition to her astronomical work, Alex is also obsessed with a fellow astronomer, Phoebe, with whom she is having a dead end but intense affair. Meanwhile, her husband, who she continues to love, is dying of cancer. These are the bones of the work around which the poetry is built. Or perhaps the poetry forms the bones and the narrative is built around that. Dorothy Porter's latest "novel" is composed in a series of poems, pieces which, in most cases, work perfectly well on their own, but together, add up to a complete narrative work which includes traditional narrative elements such as characterisation, plot, suspense and setting. It is very effective.
The power and beauty of Porter's poetry takes the reader instantly deeper into the character than a more traditional narrative prose would. It skips the conjunction, the "dialogue" and the external world, and goes straight for the emotional response, revealing the story in the personal pain and longings of the characters inner voices. The poems move forward as rapidly as any narrative fiction would, maybe faster, and centre around Alex and Daniel, her husband, alternatively taking one or the other's perspective, and sometimes first person. There are other characters as well, from Phoebe, the love interest, also a dramatic and glamorous astronomer who has discovered, along with dark matter, that the universe is moving apart, Alex's sexless friend and colleague Rachel, who is more a biologist than an astronomer, and Daniel's boss Brian Howard. These additional characters sit on the outside of the poems, teasing out the bigger issues which underlie the story - love, loss, passion, lust and mediocrity. Daniel's struggles with his illness, his life's work which has become meaningless to him, and most of all, with Alex's infidelity, both metaphorically and literally are an important part of the underlying narrative, as are Alex's struggles with her desperate passions, her calmer more pedestrian love for Daniel, and her alternative feelings of guilt and desire.
In characteristic Porter style, each of the poems is extremely powerful, using language in its most intense form, each word chosen for maximum impact. It doesn't take long to read Wild Surmise. Despite the richness of its language and the intensity of every word, the story progresses forward very rapidly, suspense building with each poem. The overall word count is probably a lot lower than a traditional prose novel would be, but the impact is higher, since the language is stripped of anything unnecessary. Each poem is almost an entire pulse or epiphany, a mini chapter, with its painful twist or revelation at the ending, funny, repulsive, but always meaningful:
"Nothing like fresh dogshit
to make the present
punch back."
The words are immediate, unsentimental, and harsh at times but mostly beautiful, leaving a lingering impression that the reader carries around after the book is finished.
"But you, darling,
were no ice-crusted
speck
teasing me
from a cold night sky.
You were always
ardently present."
Porter's fourth verse novel contains everything - love, death, passion, pain, loss and above all, the beauty and limitations of human frailty in a cosmological setting. Her astronomy is accurate and evocative - and Porter does make the reader feel the excitement and possibility of our most likely source of life in the solar system, the pathos of our quest and clumsiness as we destroy a living sea, and the very human need for passion, and peace. In a world where poetry is considered the unsaleable poor cousin of prose, Porter's books continue to sell, and compete for the big fiction awards. Her previous verse novel, The Monkey's Mask won the Age Book of the Year for Poetry, the National Book Council Award for Poetry and the Braille Book of the Year and was made into an international film in 2001. Her verse novel What a Piece of Work was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. It isn't that surprising. Although her poetry has a Plath type of wry inner power which simultaneously tortures and caresses the reader, it is very accessible and immediate. This is not "bush poetry", nor does it fit into any kind of academic or formal form. Wild Surmise is powerful because it combines the very best of fiction - its ability to create tension and a lasting and powerful narrative world, with the very best of poetry - where the most exacting, carefully chosen words, rhythms and structures allows the reader to bypass the limitations of sentence structure and get immediately under the skin of her characters and the story's themes.
March 5, 2009
This is the first new Dorothy Porter work I read since her death, and it makes me grieve for the loss of a writer who can break my heart so exquisitely.
Akenaten remains my favourite of her verse novels (though I've not re-read it for some years, so I'm not sure how it would compare now) but this is really brilliant and cutting and hurts so good.
Akenaten remains my favourite of her verse novels (though I've not re-read it for some years, so I'm not sure how it would compare now) but this is really brilliant and cutting and hurts so good.
January 17, 2015
Wow! I love Dorothy Porter. Her verse novels are fabulous and I only hope that I can write something this amazing one day!
Read
April 26, 2020wild Surmise is compelling. It makes you read it till the end in spite of yourself. Alex's passion for Europa, searching for life where there isn't any, and Daniel's efforts at exalted poetry for escaping from mediocrity;the two were not to gel easily. but opposites attracted and their marriage continued anyway. Daniel had always sensed the presence of Phoebe,his wife's girlfriend and much more. It became intense during his sickness and was confirmed by Alex. Daniel, the poet lost everything in this infidelity and almost embraced death. He never learnt that Phoebe is as unattainable to his wife as Europa. He never realised that her role was simply beyond Alex's control. Alex, too, understood only after his death that Daniel was her only love.
Though there are many biblical and mythological references in first two three chapters, the story moves surprisingly fast. A lot is told in very few words of powerful poems. Poetry itself also settles down, like Alex, towards the end. Most poems can make complete sense even as single units. They are certainly a powerful way of telling a story of just two people's inner lives. Very little time is wasted on other characters.
Dorothy Porter's poetry, used here entirely for storytelling; uses no formal poetic style, form or meter. it simply dedicates to delve in the depths of the two passionate people persuing their dreams relentlessly.
Though there are many biblical and mythological references in first two three chapters, the story moves surprisingly fast. A lot is told in very few words of powerful poems. Poetry itself also settles down, like Alex, towards the end. Most poems can make complete sense even as single units. They are certainly a powerful way of telling a story of just two people's inner lives. Very little time is wasted on other characters.
Dorothy Porter's poetry, used here entirely for storytelling; uses no formal poetic style, form or meter. it simply dedicates to delve in the depths of the two passionate people persuing their dreams relentlessly.
October 5, 2023
I've never read a novel in prose before and that probably does affect my rating, but I think this was done really well! I thought it was going to be a science-fiction, but it wasn't really (although the MC does spend a lot of the book *speculating* about aliens on Europa). Overall I really enjoyed this and am keen on trying Porter's other novels-in-prose.
October 14, 2018
A beautifully woven story, the poetry of life, death and all that’s in between
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2021
One of my favourite books, maybe ever?
November 17, 2023
Well that was dark. Gosh.
September 6, 2022
This is the last of Porter’s verse novels that I read—though not the last she wrote; that was El Dorado. I first resisted this novel because it’s not as heavily plotted as her two mysteries (El Dorado and The Monkey’s Mask) or even her “psychiatric” novel, What a Piece of Work. BUT, Wild Surmise is perhaps her most moving novel. It features the heavy sensuality that Porter fans—and there should be many more—will recognize immediately. Briefly, this novel concerns a love triangle among Alex, an bio-astronomer whose conjectures about life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, have garnished her popularity on television; her husband, Daniel, whose expertise lies far away, in teaching poetry at university; and a second female astronomer, Phoebe, whose specialty lies in cosmological conjectures about the origin of the universe. Porter’s typical mix of dark humor and well . . . dark fit prominently in this novel. The lesbian affair betwixt Phoebe and Alex has hallmark Porter sensuality which is countered by the dying-rejuvenating-wobbling love betwixt Alex and her husband.
For those not familiar with Porter’s work, here are my two-cent recommendations: If you are coming to her for plot, start with The Monkey’s Mask, which features a lesbian detective investigating the sexual murder of a college student. This one is probably her most heavily plotted (though that’s debatable; El Dorado another murder mystery, competes mightily). If your interest lies in psychological plotting, What a Piece of Work features a psychiatrist who undertakes to revive and rehabilitate a state-run institution. If you’re looking for sensuality and poetry, well, Akhenaton might work best. That novel concerns the pharaoh who introduced monotheism into Egypt, a belief which didn’t sit so hunky-dory with the high priests, as you can imagine. Probably the most sensual of all her novels, the pharaoh runs through wives including the famous Nefertiti, and nearly everyone in his family. Lots of incest. And if your interest lies in character, this one, Wild Surmise, is your best bet. You’ll need to get all these as used books, unfortunately. Get this woman’s work back in print!
For those not familiar with Porter’s work, here are my two-cent recommendations: If you are coming to her for plot, start with The Monkey’s Mask, which features a lesbian detective investigating the sexual murder of a college student. This one is probably her most heavily plotted (though that’s debatable; El Dorado another murder mystery, competes mightily). If your interest lies in psychological plotting, What a Piece of Work features a psychiatrist who undertakes to revive and rehabilitate a state-run institution. If you’re looking for sensuality and poetry, well, Akhenaton might work best. That novel concerns the pharaoh who introduced monotheism into Egypt, a belief which didn’t sit so hunky-dory with the high priests, as you can imagine. Probably the most sensual of all her novels, the pharaoh runs through wives including the famous Nefertiti, and nearly everyone in his family. Lots of incest. And if your interest lies in character, this one, Wild Surmise, is your best bet. You’ll need to get all these as used books, unfortunately. Get this woman’s work back in print!
June 3, 2011
I fell for Australian poet Dorothy Porter's versenovels in my first year at university when, for some reason, I bought a copy of 'The Monkey's Mask', a murder mystery set in Sydney written in - and about - poetry. I quickly followed that up with 'Crete', a collection of poems about (if I remember rightly, it's been years) two young women travelling the Mediterranean, lustfully in love: there is a line about desire being an electric scribble in your belly that has stuck with me ever since. And then 'Akhenatan', about a boy Emperor in Egypt, whose memory was expunged.
'Wild Surmise' is another verse novel, written in Porter's signature style: choppy staccato statements studded with lapidary words. The back cover blurb sums the plot nicely:
Reading 'Wild Surmise' strongly stirred my memory of those early university readings: not just the tone, but Porter's repeated motifs: a seductive and hardhearted lesbian character; the changing qualities of light and the changing seasons as markers of time; of salt and sea and sex; of bitterness, jealousy, lust and love.
'Wild Surmise' didn't grip me as Porter's other verse novels have - I found all the characters too unsympathetic. But it makes me want to go back to her again.
'Wild Surmise' is another verse novel, written in Porter's signature style: choppy staccato statements studded with lapidary words. The back cover blurb sums the plot nicely:
Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel rages against his tedious job, his failing health and his wife's infidelity.
Reading 'Wild Surmise' strongly stirred my memory of those early university readings: not just the tone, but Porter's repeated motifs: a seductive and hardhearted lesbian character; the changing qualities of light and the changing seasons as markers of time; of salt and sea and sex; of bitterness, jealousy, lust and love.
Seduction
It was the light
ravishing Daniel
like a seduction
he'd never known
like a fever
that had never ravaged him.
It was the light
tawny and strange
raging through the flickering
leaves of the apricot tree.
The light
the twilight light
coming for him
like a slow swelling sea
coming for him
a rippling salty eternity.
'Wild Surmise' didn't grip me as Porter's other verse novels have - I found all the characters too unsympathetic. But it makes me want to go back to her again.
June 30, 2016
I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book.
It is not what I usually read and I haven't touched a Dorothy Porter book before but I can see why people likes her stuff so much.
What I got was really well written poems from two perspectives, Alex and her husband which detailed their story and their struggle with their own personal issues. Alex is obsessed with finding life on one of Jupiter's moons and has fallen for another woman named Phoebe. Her husband, Daniel, is dying of cancer and is fully aware that his wife is having an affair.
This story presents something that you could call the essence of poetry (love, pain, loss). Through it, the suspense builds but you can't help but get deeper and deeper into each character. You can almost feel the frustration and pain being thrown back at you.
"Bullshit.
You're just another Doctor Jekyll
poking, prying
and hoping.
Christ knows what toxic Mister Hyde
your blundering ice probe could find
and free"
It didn't appear cut up or a little over the place as I expected. It flowed smoothly. Another thing I enjoyed was the symbolism throughout the story. Near the end Rachel calls Alex and tells her that a lake has been killed.
"We're not scientists any more, Alex,
we're thieves
the kind that smash down your door
and leave their shit on your walls."
This happens around the time that Alex loses her husband all together. This could show that Alex feels as if she is responsible for the gap between the two in his final months. As if she killed the love. There is an instance where it states that the sky is only getting darker which is a sign of her mourning and her acceptance of her husband's death.
Overall this book manage to describe passion, love, pain and death in a very beautifully written way that allowed you to connect to the very much human side of the characters.
It is not what I usually read and I haven't touched a Dorothy Porter book before but I can see why people likes her stuff so much.
What I got was really well written poems from two perspectives, Alex and her husband which detailed their story and their struggle with their own personal issues. Alex is obsessed with finding life on one of Jupiter's moons and has fallen for another woman named Phoebe. Her husband, Daniel, is dying of cancer and is fully aware that his wife is having an affair.
This story presents something that you could call the essence of poetry (love, pain, loss). Through it, the suspense builds but you can't help but get deeper and deeper into each character. You can almost feel the frustration and pain being thrown back at you.
"Bullshit.
You're just another Doctor Jekyll
poking, prying
and hoping.
Christ knows what toxic Mister Hyde
your blundering ice probe could find
and free"
It didn't appear cut up or a little over the place as I expected. It flowed smoothly. Another thing I enjoyed was the symbolism throughout the story. Near the end Rachel calls Alex and tells her that a lake has been killed.
"We're not scientists any more, Alex,
we're thieves
the kind that smash down your door
and leave their shit on your walls."
This happens around the time that Alex loses her husband all together. This could show that Alex feels as if she is responsible for the gap between the two in his final months. As if she killed the love. There is an instance where it states that the sky is only getting darker which is a sign of her mourning and her acceptance of her husband's death.
Overall this book manage to describe passion, love, pain and death in a very beautifully written way that allowed you to connect to the very much human side of the characters.
January 23, 2016
Not my favourite Porter but on the whole not bad. Quite a few cringe-worthy, cliched images though - lacking the originality and poetic mastery she has otherwise demonstrated in Akhenaten and The Monkey's Mask.
July 13, 2024
A new discovery for me. I was transported to Melbourne, to europa, to passion and beyond. What more can I ask from a book than it is both a mirror and a learning experience.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews