Squid Squad: A Novel

by Matthew Welton

 A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2020. A Telegraph Book of the Year 2020. In Squid Squad: A Novel we join Natalie Chatterley, Angus Mingus, Nerys Harris and friends as they make recordings of the doorbell, uncrumple their cash and fling their walnuts from the window. They contemplate the spaces between the spaces between things and compare the rhythm of rhetoric to the rhetoric of rhythm, while around them chickens feed on chestnuts, nuthatches nest in bicycle baskets, and budgerigars sulk themselves to sleep. The second half features shorter stand-alone poems. Here, poetic form is given a playful reworking: a poem to be spoken in a single breath, a poem made entirely of questions, a series of three poems in the form of university mark schemes, and poems that explore the possibilities of the list as a verse form.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2020

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second you start to read Squid Squad you feel that here’s someone who’s going to approach poetry, or novel as stated on the cover a little bit differently.

The book is about a group of friends who appear to be performing everyday actions but with a little eccentric touch. Like bringing a milk bottle filled with beer to a picnic or filling a water pistol with vinegar. As this 64 part poem/novel proceeds, the reader form a picture of the volatile nature of objects. Things break down or rot. Some are destroyed but also objects are rebuilt or they grow. In between all this action some of the characters philosophise about life.

This part of the book is funny, strange and yet it’s playful and it’s easy to get caught up in rush.

The second part of Squid Squad consists of a handful of poems. If you thought part one was inventive then the second part has Matthew Welton firing on all cylinders. There’s a series of poems based on the different shades of Green, Blue and Black colors. The thing is it’s in the format of a report card – the black poem is called blacklist (I can’t resist a pun). Elsewhere there’s a sonnet based on the times of the day, considering the stay at home situation, this has much more significance. One poem, Awesome, is based on the alphabet and my personal favorite Poem in which I Riff on the Pulp Song ‘Dishes‘ in which the Line ‘ I am not Jesus thought I have the Same Initials’ is Sung by Jarvis Cocker. Here Matthew Welton mentions other people with the initials M.W. and claims that he is not them. I could be biased because it’s my favourite Pulp song but this poem is brilliant and will get a chuckle.

Squid Squad is like a neon firecracker. These poems explode and shower bright colors in your face. There’s a youthful vibrant vibe. Fresh and funny. If you thought poetry was dull and dour think again.

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a month or more off because I got distracted by summer holidays oops but so glad to have finished it finally.

Some other collections I've read recently have felt like a few poems thrown together. This however felt cohesive and put together. You can tell Matt thought about every single word and piece of punctuation he wrote.

Loved it.

[Margaryta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another great example of a book that has a promising premise but is an infuriating read. Giving this one more star than it probably deserves, based on how little I was able to pay attention to Welton's "poems" and how frequently I began to skim through it. Welton had some good ideas, and some of the pieces in the second half were indeed fun - I'm thinking of the trilogy "Green Gauge," "Blues Scale," "Black List", as well as the concept behind (and not so much the actual execution of) "3 Pieces with Semi-Colons," "Awesome," and "Birthday Poem for Sam Buchan-Watts." The first, more novel-esque, part of "Squid Squad" was quite painful to read and the second half with the individual poems was at least annoying in its own self-conscious quirkiness. This is the second book in a row from Carcanet's 2020 catalogue that was off the mark in terms of my expectations, I wonder if it's just a specific style of poetry that they happened to publish that isn't for me.

[Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The sunlight catches the spider-webs / and I can’t really hear what you’re saying”... I read and adored Matthew Welton’s beautiful new poetry collection Squid Squad: A Novel last weekend. 64 clever poems capturing the rhythms and movements of a group of people, which somehow perfectly (but unintentionally) captures the stir-craziness of lockdown, form the first part of the book, while the second is comprised of inventive stand-alone poems, such as the mark-scheme brilliance of ‘Green Gauge’, ‘Blues Scale’, or ‘Black List’, and the beautiful and pacy ‘Poem In A Single Breath’ (where the earlier “spider-webs” line is from), which leaves its reader both breathless and delighted. This is a book that challenges what the poetry collection can do and look like, and that reminds us of the beauty of everyday objects, of thinking and talking and cooking and working and living.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hank Strunk feeds the sparrows the asparagus. Natalie Chatterley's noodle ladle rusts. [2]

Daisies grow in the grit bin. The moonlight lulls. [7]

Audrey Chaudri's hiccups keep the nuthatches awake. [10]

The budgerigars sulk themselves to sleep. [15]

A raven rephrases the robin's song. [26]

The clouds, says Natalie Chatterley, come like an unbudgeable kind of boredom. [30]

Nerys Harris re-dilutes her blueberry juice. [35]

As she dismantles the ladders, Natalie Chatterley considers whether the spring winds flurry like worthiness or worry. [43]

The robins regurgitate the under-ripe raspberries. [55]

The clouds go by like something no one's saying, writes Audrey Chaudri in her diary. [58]

Autumn comes like something someone's mumbling, says Angus Mingus. Bradley Ridley's handprints won't wash off the windows. Natalie Chatterley's rubber ball loses its bounce. [59]

[Mark Ward]

NOPE. Absolutely not.