Cain

by Luke Kennard

'Endlessly inventive, bruisingly direct, and rich with a desperate, defensive humour. A stunning achievement.' Joe Dunthorne. The year is 2016 and Luke Kennard finds himself estranged from his family, his publisher and his faith. With the help of his Community Psychiatric Nurse, who claims to be the living embodiment of Cain - the first murderer - the poet changes his name to Father K and searches for answers - in his childhood, in poetry, in alcohol, and in a notorious, long-running DVD box-set.Tricksy, acerbic and laugh-out-loud funny, Cain is the dazzling new collection from Next Generation Poet Luke Kennard. In a series of animated conversations, Cain provides therapy sessions for the author, covering everything from interfaith dialogue and genealogy to zombies. Cain's central sequence of 31 anagram poems re-energises Genesis 4:9-12, demonstrating the mastery of form and trademark surreal humour that has made Kennard one of British poetry's brightest lights.

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 2016

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the publisher summary:

"The year is 2016 and Luke Kennard finds himself estranged from his family, his publisher and his faith. With the help of his Community Psychiatric Nurse, who claims to be the living embodiment of Cain - the first murderer - the poet changes his name to Father K and searches for answers - in his childhood, in poetry, in alcohol, and in a notorious, long-running DVD box-set."

Sound funny? Well, it is. I can't tell you the last time I laughed out loud while reading poetry but I definitely did here.

The poems are actually in three sections - first and third are the poet dialoguing with Cain and letting it go a number of directions. And in an age where poetry is performed live and intended for spoken-word, the middle section of 31 anagrams of Genesis 4:9-12 are mind-boggling and only something that could happen in print! I still don't quite know how he did it; it must have taken hours and weeks and years.

My favorite poem is probably "A Stranger's Disaster," with lines like:
“I grew an unconvincing beard.
I took two weeks’ compassionate leave then switched to Laphroaig
in my coffee and gave lectures about Imagism and
the Beats where my voice was like a distant siren...”

And you can watch the poet read This DDoS Attack on My Heart," which is a found words poem.

Lots of fun, but these poems need to be seen on the page to be fully appreciated.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the character of Cain and the style of Book I and III.

Book II was a struggle to get through, namely due to the tiny font, but it did grow on me as I read on. The amount of difficult language stressed me out at times, and I gave up searching their meaning pretty quickly.

[Dion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm of varied minds about this book. I thought the first third was absolutely brilliant. I laughed and found it incredibly poignant in equal measure, and wish the rest of the book was like that. The interplay between Cain and the author was brilliant. The anagram section felt a bit more like a creative writing exercise than something that came from the heart - a bit of poetic acrobatics to prove the author could do it, rather than actually telling a story. The last third somewhat clawed things back, but I didn't grasp the ending. It might be my own shortfall, but I'd like the author to meet me halfway in the middle. The connection between Cain's story and the author was striking, but could have used a bit more fleshing out. Still, I liked this enough that I would recommend it to anybody who likes a bit of challenging poetry.

[Duncan Vicat-Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among the many deeply impressive things about this collection, my favourite might be that when he decided to anagram a Bible verse into 31 different poems for the centrepiece, Kennard chose one with such a disproportionate number of H's.

[Alexander Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is a genius

[Serge ♆ Neptune · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to have sex with these poems! Just brilliant!

[Ali-pie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure there's a profound reason why there were 31 anagram poems in the middle but it was just too many for me! There was a lot I really liked about this book; it's interesting, clever and funny. Books one and two were very readable but about 1/3 of the way through the anagrams I was struggling, even though I started out enjoying them. It probably would have helped if the text wasn't so tiny!

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5. The anagram poems grew tiring, but for concept, execution, emotion, humor, invention--top marks across the board. First book I've read of Luke Kennard's and I love him.

[Darren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Beautiful book which has some very good moments but then gets a bit tediously inventive in a manner that bores rather than excites.

[Ellie Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

83/100

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read and re-read this. An absolute flex of a collection.