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Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse
Time's Fool tells the tale of Edmund Lea, a young man condemned to eternity alone until he determines how to lift the curse upon him. Edmund perpetually rides a phantom train -- except on Christmas Eve every seven years, when he is allowed to revisit his English hometown. He tries to break the spell by way of love, repentance, and death -- all in vain. Time passes, from 1970 to 2019, but Edmund remains seventeen, unable to age but watching the world grow older. Infused with a dark humor and an almost unbearable nostalgia, Time's Fool is a brilliant achievement, "classic yet hip, stylized yet inventive" (Scotsman).
- GenresPoetry
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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101 people want to read
About the author
Glyn Maxwell
52 books46 followersGlyn Maxwell is a poet and playwright. He has also written novels, opera libretti, screenplay and criticism.
His nine volumes of poetry include The Breakage, Hide Now, and Pluto, all of which were shortlisted for either the Forward or T. S. Eliot Prizes, and The Nerve, which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was one of the original ‘New Generation Poets’ in 1993, along with Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Don Paterson. His poetry has been published in the USA since 2000. His Selected Poems, One Thousand Nights and Counting, was published on both sides of the Atlantic in 2011. He has a long association with Derek Walcott, who taught him in Boston in the late 1980s, and whose Selected Poems he edited in 2014.
On Poetry, a guidebook for the general reader, was published by Oberon in their Masters Series in 2012. It was described by Hugo Williams in The Spectator as ‘a modern classic’ and by Adam Newey in The Guardian as ‘the best book about poetry I’ve ever read.’
Fifteen of Maxwell’s plays have been staged in London and New York, including Liberty at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Lifeblood at Riverside Studios, and The Only Girl in the World at the Arcola, as well as work at the Almeida, Theatre 503, Oxford Playhouse, the Hen and Chickens, and RADA. He has written extensively for the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre in Chester.
His opera libretti include The Firework Maker’s Daughter (composer David Bruce) which was shortlisted for ‘Best New Opera’ at the Oliviers in 2014, Seven Angels (Luke Bedford) inspired by Paradise Lost, and The Lion’s Face (Elena Langer), a study of dementia. All of these were staged at the Royal Opera House and toured the UK.
He is currently working on a screen adaptation of Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle for the Dutch director Clara Van Gool.
His nine volumes of poetry include The Breakage, Hide Now, and Pluto, all of which were shortlisted for either the Forward or T. S. Eliot Prizes, and The Nerve, which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was one of the original ‘New Generation Poets’ in 1993, along with Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Don Paterson. His poetry has been published in the USA since 2000. His Selected Poems, One Thousand Nights and Counting, was published on both sides of the Atlantic in 2011. He has a long association with Derek Walcott, who taught him in Boston in the late 1980s, and whose Selected Poems he edited in 2014.
On Poetry, a guidebook for the general reader, was published by Oberon in their Masters Series in 2012. It was described by Hugo Williams in The Spectator as ‘a modern classic’ and by Adam Newey in The Guardian as ‘the best book about poetry I’ve ever read.’
Fifteen of Maxwell’s plays have been staged in London and New York, including Liberty at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Lifeblood at Riverside Studios, and The Only Girl in the World at the Arcola, as well as work at the Almeida, Theatre 503, Oxford Playhouse, the Hen and Chickens, and RADA. He has written extensively for the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre in Chester.
His opera libretti include The Firework Maker’s Daughter (composer David Bruce) which was shortlisted for ‘Best New Opera’ at the Oliviers in 2014, Seven Angels (Luke Bedford) inspired by Paradise Lost, and The Lion’s Face (Elena Langer), a study of dementia. All of these were staged at the Royal Opera House and toured the UK.
He is currently working on a screen adaptation of Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle for the Dutch director Clara Van Gool.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 27, 2020
Glyn Maxwell thought he could write a tale in verse, but obviously didn't put enough thought into whether or not he should. I almost gave this book one star, but gave it an extra one for the ambition alone. It's such an unenjoyable read that I wanted to give up after the first chapter.
The big problem I have with Time's Fool is that it doesn't work well as a story or as poetry. Yes, it's cool that Maxwell wrote almost 400 pages in terza rima, but it's still not good poetry. The rhymes are either repeated ad nauseum or are so slanted that they barely qualify as a rhyme. There aren't many poetic devices and the vocabulary is dull and often monosyllabic so that it will fit neatly into pentameter. The only thing that I found somewhat successful about Maxwell's poetry is that there's a good amount of internal rhyme, which is a lot more subtle and euphonius than the overall rhyme scheme.
As a story, Time's Fool is a mess. I'm still not sure that I entirely understand what happened, but I'm not keen to re-read and find out. Each chapter starts with a synopsis in prose, but the way the plot fleshes out in verse is obscured and unsatisfying. I hated how the chapters are so repetitive and full of useless tertiary characters. Even the narrator himself isn't very interesting. I feel like the author kind of screwed himself over when he decided the story was about a guy who's forever seventeen and stuck on a train (a.k.a. Hell) and can only return to his hometown for Christmas Eve. Each of the nine chapters basically re-tells the same story with only a few minor changes.
Basically: Edmund shows up in Hartisle, people recognize him but don't believe it's him (it's Edmund's son/grandson!!!), Edmund is really dead and there's no way he's still seventeen. He loses his first love, kills the guy who stole her from him, meets kids named Wasgood (Woz) and Polly, tries to reconnect with his family, eventually Woz and Edmund's old friends make a cult around him because his septannual resurrection makes him Jesus-like, he believes that he can only break the curse by marrying a virgin who loves him, misses his opportunity to marry the virgin...then decides to miss his stop on Christmas Eve, which causes him to get out of the weird time loop, he ages (?) and lives in a senior's home with Polly and her friends.
There are a couple of interesting parts but they're completely overshadowed by Edmund's boring, seventy year train journey.
The big problem I have with Time's Fool is that it doesn't work well as a story or as poetry. Yes, it's cool that Maxwell wrote almost 400 pages in terza rima, but it's still not good poetry. The rhymes are either repeated ad nauseum or are so slanted that they barely qualify as a rhyme. There aren't many poetic devices and the vocabulary is dull and often monosyllabic so that it will fit neatly into pentameter. The only thing that I found somewhat successful about Maxwell's poetry is that there's a good amount of internal rhyme, which is a lot more subtle and euphonius than the overall rhyme scheme.
As a story, Time's Fool is a mess. I'm still not sure that I entirely understand what happened, but I'm not keen to re-read and find out. Each chapter starts with a synopsis in prose, but the way the plot fleshes out in verse is obscured and unsatisfying. I hated how the chapters are so repetitive and full of useless tertiary characters. Even the narrator himself isn't very interesting. I feel like the author kind of screwed himself over when he decided the story was about a guy who's forever seventeen and stuck on a train (a.k.a. Hell) and can only return to his hometown for Christmas Eve. Each of the nine chapters basically re-tells the same story with only a few minor changes.
Basically: Edmund shows up in Hartisle, people recognize him but don't believe it's him (it's Edmund's son/grandson!!!), Edmund is really dead and there's no way he's still seventeen. He loses his first love, kills the guy who stole her from him, meets kids named Wasgood (Woz) and Polly, tries to reconnect with his family, eventually Woz and Edmund's old friends make a cult around him because his septannual resurrection makes him Jesus-like, he believes that he can only break the curse by marrying a virgin who loves him, misses his opportunity to marry the virgin...then decides to miss his stop on Christmas Eve, which causes him to get out of the weird time loop, he ages (?) and lives in a senior's home with Polly and her friends.
There are a couple of interesting parts but they're completely overshadowed by Edmund's boring, seventy year train journey.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2012
I enjoyed this book especially because it is unusually written. It is written in verse so it's like a long poem, and it there are some turns of phrases that are really lovely. At times, this mode of writing can make it difficult to understand a paragraph but everything becomes clear eventually, and you get the jist of it. But overall, I think it's a really interesting to read. The novel is about a 17 yr old guy named Edmund Lea who, due to events that become clearer as the book goes on, becomes doomed to ride a ghost type train forever. He does not age. Every 7 years he is returned on the day he started riding the train, Christmas Eve, to his home town. As the years pass, he sees his family and friends grow old, and most do not believe he is Edmund since he still looks 17. He struggles to figure a way to stop this curse. And in doing so, he remembers the events that lead him to board the ghost train in the first place. It's a very unique book, and I really enjoyed the writing, the story, etc.
February 9, 2013
Entertaining, and enjoyable: a tale in verse well worth the reading. I was slowing down towards the end to avoid finishing. Then I realised I was also avoiding the end because I expected it to be an anti climax. A skilled writer builds mystery and tension, it takes a genius to resolve them. I'm not sure Maxwell did.
So five stars for all that, and the fact it's written in Terza RIma, which is impressive.
But then deduct something:
1) for the feeling of padding, which is probably a consequence of the chosen form in some of the verses but there are pages scattered through the book which just seem unnecessarily vague and long winded.
2) for the sense that as a story it works, compellingly so, but nagging at the edges is "what does all this mean?" The old folk stories that haunt this leave that to the audience. Maxwell however suggests and hints that there is some kind of point but in the end the way Edmund 'saves himself' is ....well, you'd have to read it.
Maybe it "means" nothing. Maybe the pieces don't fit, but it's a fine ride regardless.
So five stars for all that, and the fact it's written in Terza RIma, which is impressive.
But then deduct something:
1) for the feeling of padding, which is probably a consequence of the chosen form in some of the verses but there are pages scattered through the book which just seem unnecessarily vague and long winded.
2) for the sense that as a story it works, compellingly so, but nagging at the edges is "what does all this mean?" The old folk stories that haunt this leave that to the audience. Maxwell however suggests and hints that there is some kind of point but in the end the way Edmund 'saves himself' is ....well, you'd have to read it.
Maybe it "means" nothing. Maybe the pieces don't fit, but it's a fine ride regardless.
February 18, 2007
Fantastic.
August 17, 2009
funny and incredible use of terza rima, but then 3/4ths of the way through i hit a wall-too repetitive, or too ambitious of a dream sequence..
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews