What do you think?
Rate this book
Fleet
"Fleet is a ‘weltersong' of desire and otherness. An epic saga of shapeshifting enchantment and an all too familiar drama of longing, banishment, abuse, survival and love.
Jane Burn brings her unique vision, wild wordplay and stunning image-making to the evocation of the folklore of the Witch-Hare, and the voices of Motherdoe, Fleet and Daughterhare with the full force of mythic tragedy and Ovidian metamorphosis."
Bob Beagrie, poet
Jane Burn brings her unique vision, wild wordplay and stunning image-making to the evocation of the folklore of the Witch-Hare, and the voices of Motherdoe, Fleet and Daughterhare with the full force of mythic tragedy and Ovidian metamorphosis."
Bob Beagrie, poet
103 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2018
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 12, 2018
My copy only arrived a little while ago earlier today, and once I started reading, I couldn't stop. My first full read will be one of many so I can properly soak in the wonder of the language and the story and all the meanings running through this book. It is magical, resonant, heartfelt and very powerfully evocative of both its physical and emotional environments. Yet another amazing work from the very talented Jane Burn (and check out the beautiful images she has created to present with it).
August 30, 2021
REVIEW for FLEET by JANE BURN
This beautiful allegory is told in dialogue, bushes of imagery...built not in brick but pebble and stone, branch and leaf. I love how Jane has piled descriptions as if she was creating cairns with blunt objects. You fall in with Fleet immediately, into the yearning for what’s next. This is such a tale of desire, regret and magic which is at the heart of all creatures...and written with wonderful choices of words. She runs some together reminding me of McGough’s 'Summer with Monika', others slip around the page, down down with her ‘potholed road’. Reading the poem, Rabbits on page 24 will take your face into orbit with delight…
‘Buck an’ doe, dancing under wedding skies, kissing
clefty mouths together...’
This is a poetic novel, sneaking tension, fear and earthly setting to capture us, recognise our own flaws in younger years, feel the frustration of dealing with teenage angst, impatience and heartbreak from both sides.
From page 43:
‘...There is not much empty stomach room,
insides still swollen with hurts...’
Not a small book by any means; the time it must’ve taken to hold all this and get it down, each section in its own little package but not separate; it’s seamless with open space on the pages. From different points of view she deals with change and metamorphosis, comparison, differences and reactions of others to out-of-the-ordinary. Poems of myth, origins, move on to the price paid for knowledge only gained by living a whole life. I have so many favourite phrases and lines in this book – which I will keep on my shelf always – but this one from page 70 is fabulouslyrelevant:
‘This is a planet of garbage and steel.’
It slaps us right in the face with our reality. I think this book should sit beside Orwell’s 'Animal Farm' and Richard Adam’s 'Watership Down' quite comfortably. Even readers not usually interested in poetry will love this book...and remember it always...and buy it for friends and family.
Irene Cunningham 2021
This beautiful allegory is told in dialogue, bushes of imagery...built not in brick but pebble and stone, branch and leaf. I love how Jane has piled descriptions as if she was creating cairns with blunt objects. You fall in with Fleet immediately, into the yearning for what’s next. This is such a tale of desire, regret and magic which is at the heart of all creatures...and written with wonderful choices of words. She runs some together reminding me of McGough’s 'Summer with Monika', others slip around the page, down down with her ‘potholed road’. Reading the poem, Rabbits on page 24 will take your face into orbit with delight…
‘Buck an’ doe, dancing under wedding skies, kissing
clefty mouths together...’
This is a poetic novel, sneaking tension, fear and earthly setting to capture us, recognise our own flaws in younger years, feel the frustration of dealing with teenage angst, impatience and heartbreak from both sides.
From page 43:
‘...There is not much empty stomach room,
insides still swollen with hurts...’
Not a small book by any means; the time it must’ve taken to hold all this and get it down, each section in its own little package but not separate; it’s seamless with open space on the pages. From different points of view she deals with change and metamorphosis, comparison, differences and reactions of others to out-of-the-ordinary. Poems of myth, origins, move on to the price paid for knowledge only gained by living a whole life. I have so many favourite phrases and lines in this book – which I will keep on my shelf always – but this one from page 70 is fabulouslyrelevant:
‘This is a planet of garbage and steel.’
It slaps us right in the face with our reality. I think this book should sit beside Orwell’s 'Animal Farm' and Richard Adam’s 'Watership Down' quite comfortably. Even readers not usually interested in poetry will love this book...and remember it always...and buy it for friends and family.
Irene Cunningham 2021
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews