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Dancing with Empty Prams
How far would you go to have a baby? Dancing with Empty Prams, Austin's verse novel, tells the story of a woman whose plan to have a baby carries her on a quest she never imagined.
"Austin’s craft in this work is masterful. It lays open the suburban life of a couple to expose the piercing, intimate, bleak, and intensely lonely experience of infertility. The experience for the reader is emotionally deep and it is a book which, as it progresses, becomes impossible to put down." Esther Ottaway
"Austin makes compelling poetry. She brings her verbal acuity, sound ethical concerns, charm and humanity to Dancing with Empty Prams." Liz Winfield
"Austin’s craft in this work is masterful. It lays open the suburban life of a couple to expose the piercing, intimate, bleak, and intensely lonely experience of infertility. The experience for the reader is emotionally deep and it is a book which, as it progresses, becomes impossible to put down." Esther Ottaway
"Austin makes compelling poetry. She brings her verbal acuity, sound ethical concerns, charm and humanity to Dancing with Empty Prams." Liz Winfield
223 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 8, 2024
This volume, taken as a whole, provides compelling insight into an infertility journey. Each poem is distinct, and the narrative is formed by the holistic combination of these (which does move linearly through time). This allows a kaleidoscopic view of an experience. Through the poems, Austin gives each moment, emotion, or thought space to breathe, to be ambivalent or intensely felt. But the next poem can take us to a different space. It works remarkably well for conveying complexity, contradiction and the hugeness of such an experience.
The poems do various kinds of heavy lifting, from exposition to emotional clarity, and there are inevitable bumpy patches. Still, some of the more outstanding entries, including Intimacy and Invisible Undercurrent, capture perfectly a moment in time.
I felt quite drained by the end, which I think is partly the point. We are still emerging in the literature that values, explores and shares women-centred experiences, especially such embodied ones, and I think this is a significant contribution to that body of work.
The poems do various kinds of heavy lifting, from exposition to emotional clarity, and there are inevitable bumpy patches. Still, some of the more outstanding entries, including Intimacy and Invisible Undercurrent, capture perfectly a moment in time.
I felt quite drained by the end, which I think is partly the point. We are still emerging in the literature that values, explores and shares women-centred experiences, especially such embodied ones, and I think this is a significant contribution to that body of work.
July 27, 2023
The author is a friend of mine and I'm very impressed with what Susan has achieved here. I loved her first poetry book, Undertow. Susan has a wonderful way of choosing words and stringing them together to convey her message. Her effective use of metaphor makes for wonderful reading. This book gave me great insight to the challenges that some couples have when trying to conceive a baby. This was the first verse novel I have read. I'm giving it a four, as I did wish for one or more other threads in the story, but maybe that is not practical in a verse novel such as this. I'll have to talk to her about it. I'm really looking forward to seeing where Susan goes with her writing next. Congratulations, Susan!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews