Nonsense

by Christopher Reid

Christopher Reid's new collection is a quartet of works for voice, opening with the brisk and brightly coloured monologue of Professor Winterthorn - recently widowed, soon to be retired, who decides on impulse to attend a conference in California.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher Reid, FRSL is a Hong Kong-born British poet, essayist, cartoonist, and writer. He has been nominated twice for the Whitbread Awards in 1996 and in 1997. A contemporary of Martin Amis, he was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He is one of the exponents of Martian poetry which employs unusual metaphors to render everyday experiences and objects unfamiliar. He has worked as poetry editor at Faber and Faber and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hull. In January 2010 he was awarded the 2009 Costa Book Award for A Scattering, written as a tribute to his late wife, the actress Lucinda Gane. The work won in the poetry category, and overall Best Book of the Year, becoming the first poet to take the overall prize since Seamus Heaney in 1999.

Reviews

[Jean-Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a strange, but admirable and enjoyable book ! I chose to order it following a review in my newspaper, thinking it was a novel. Actually, it is a volume of poetry -in a way- just as some of the poems have a narrative quality -in a way-, though in that case, the stories do not display much of a yarn (like a widowed, retired professor deciding to attend a conference abroad, where he will meet a number of former students with whom he will not hop into the sack).
The charm of the book lies elsewhere. On a prima facie basis, some poems look like prose broken up into short lines, but then again, this (as well as the lexical choices) gives the text a rhythmic and sonorous quality of great beauty.
Nor does Reid let himself be locked up in one genre. Some of the poems rhyme, some don't;, some poems display regular metre, some don't; and some aim halfway between the two, and all this adds up to the pleasant surprise which I believe poetry ought to give, whatever the age or formal constraints. And in this respect, I feel the small volume is successful -- not one to be buried away on a bottom shelf to be eventually forgotten, but one to be kept within reach to be read again and again on a quiet evening.

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyful, fun and witty from page one and until the very last line of the book. Gorgeous poetry, agile, full of light and life. Even the gloomy pieces shine.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the quartet quite unsettling. I can’t really say whether or not I liked it, just that I didn’t hate it - which in itself is saying something.

[Mark Friend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Reid’s Nonsense is a collection of poetry that I purchased at a book sale last year but now that I’ve finally read it, it has delightfully surprised me.

It begins with two long poems - Professor Winterthorn’s Journey, (62 pages) and The Suit of Mistress Quickly (11 pages), which are both written with a light fluidity that reads like a dance, moving the reader through a humorous but observant character study and narrative.

Both long poems are clipped into brief episodes of action and thought, alternating between advancing the plot / action and moments of internal reflection - to create a sense of theatricality that is almost akin to Thomas’ ‘Under Milkwood’ or Oswald‘s ‘Dart’.

The two long poems are followed by two suites of poems.Most of the shorter poems that grabbed my attention come from ‘A Salute to Moonlight’ including: The Conscripts, Espresso, Truck, Solar System, A Pub Band, and Neddy & the Night Noises - which might have teaching applications.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS

Reviewed by The Guardian (16 Sep 2012)