On Trampolining

by Rebecca Perry

When Rebecca Perry was growing up, she competed nationally and internationally as a trampolinist. This immersive and compelling book deftly blends memoir and lyrical nonfiction to explore a time she ‘chose air over earth’ and intensive schedules of practice. From the aerial views of English sports halls and international stadiums, to the texture of a fingernail pressed against silver beads on a leotard, Perry’s explorations are immersive, sensuous, funny, traumatic and tender. In ‘On Trampolining’, Perry weaves arresting tales on pain, expectation, flight and grief in relation to competitive sport, memory and the body.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2023

About the author

Rebecca Perry was born in 1986 in London. Her first book-length collection, ‘Beauty/Beauty’ (Bloodaxe Books, 2015), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize 2017, and was also shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for First Full Collection. Her second book-length collection, ‘Stone Fruit’, also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, was published by Bloodaxe in 2021.

Reviews

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I have allowed one of my implausible memories to be true and have settled on this one.” I had the pleasure of reading Rebecca Perry’s essay On Trampolining a while back as a proof-reader, and had to really resist the urge to be carried along by Perry’s exquisitely lyrical prose; today, reading it finally as a reader, free to jump about the text and enjoy it’s springiness and sounds, I was struck again by its undeniable power, as it leads its reader tenderly by the hand through the past, through grief and trauma and triumph. It is a narrative in part about narrative — the fairy tales we absorb, half-asleep, as we move through childhood; the dissonance in memory, both personally and amongst family; the stories we tell ourselves to work through grief, trauma, and all the unknown of the world. So much of it is about the body, both in terms of its changes from girlhood to womanhood and its complex place as both tool and vessel for an athlete, so often made to confront its capabilities and its limits. “My body felt out of my control and it was embarrassing me.” “Falling into pain is a strange feeling. Jumping away from it, knowing it is coming again very soon. Choosing the pain, being helpless to stop it.” “When I was a trampolinist I had never felt like my movements were really taken on by my body.” It’s a stunning book, in contents and in design, and it’s full of hopeful embraces for the versions of ourselves we leave behind. “I have no idea now, if I tried again, whether it would be waiting there in my pocket ready to be retrieved, or floating out in deep space, way beyond my reach.”

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. It is an extraordinary poetic memoir drawing on Perry's experience of competitive trampolining in childhood. But it isn't a book about competitive trampolining, its one about trust, fear of losing control, one about failure and whether it is better to be failed by others than to fail yourself. It is about searching within your muscles for the memory of something - beyond skill, beyond a certain move, towards an identity that might still be latent within them - and doubtfulness about memory. I'm sure the form of this book will inspire many imitators, and it has been beautifully produced by Makina Books. I cannot recommend highly enough.

[A Selkirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this on Max Porter's twitter and so pre-ordered it - I'm so glad I did! Rebecca Perry is known as a poet and this really came through in the writing, everything was precise, beautiful, intense. If you love Maggie Nelson's Bluets I think you'll love this too.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

i would like to buy something from a vending machine in a sports hall

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book, it’s beautifully written and presented. the topic is really interesting and so readable. the writing is lyrical but sharp and a real pleasure to read.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this poetic little gem.