The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Paul Farley has already won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection with this book; he is a rare debutante in that rather than showing promise, he delivers much already. Born in Liverpool in 1965, Farley has a premature nostalgia and seems to have been born an elegist; in a book full of appreciative references to the cinema, he acknowledges: "It's clear I love the footage of the past". But Farley, though tender, is no sentimentalist; witty and precise, he weaves between an affectionate rendering of some of the grittier and unfashionable sides of his city's inhabitants ("the seventies live on in top- floor flats") and a mistrustful, ambivalent embrace of modernity. In "Monopoly", the harmless economic battles of the board game give way to real lives of buildings and work, but it is Farley who loyally remains: "sole freeholder of every empty office space in town, and from the quayside I can count the cost each low tide brings--the skeletons and rust of boats, cars, hats, boots, iron, a terrier". Farley writes with an engaging directness without sacrificing metre and form, his handling of which is, properly, unobtrusively effective. For a young poet to write with wit and intelligence in such an unshowy way, and to avoid the casual cynical use of irony so popular at the moment, is a triumph; here is a writer utterly at home in contemporary culture who treats his milieu with benign, mature scepticism. --Robert Potts
Product Description
In this collection of poetry, the author can be found speaking in the voice of a light bulb, a hungover window-cleaner, a photographer trapped in a condemned block, and a deranged collector of vinyl.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Boy from chemist got wrong address!,
By
This review is from: The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Paperback)
Having discovered Farley's poem 'The boy from the chemist is here to see you' on the internet I decided to buy his acclaimed debut so that I could have it in print, I was astounded to find that the anthology does not contain the poem ......... no more to add really.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Book,
By Midas (Wolverhampton) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Paperback)
I have an affinity with Paul Farley's work as, like me, he went through art college, and his poetry is very visual. He is also four years younger than me, and many of his poems share frames of reference with my generation. In my opinion, this debut collection contains a number of Paul's best poems: Laws of Gravity, Electricity, Treacle, Monopoly, to name just a few. 'Laws of Gravity' deserves an essay of its own, and it is a truly beautiful piece of work. A homage to his father who was a window cleaner. A poem that conveys love and respect, and shows exactly how we still look for our loved ones after they have gone.He also delights in the sound of words, the poem 'Treacle' illustrates this nicely. And that poem shows his talent as a poet, in his ability to take us from a simple tin of treacle to: history, the empire, bygone times. His writing style in this book, from full iambic meter to free verse (underpinned with iambic meter) is rewarding to read; and his language is rich and imaginative. His sense of audience and the reader is refreshing and well considered. If you enjoy reading poetry, you will find yourself dipping into this book time and time again.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfectly astonishing,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (Paperback)
I was astonished by this debut collection. We expect fledgling poets to pull out all the stops and attempt to dazzle us with their first books, but there's a critical mass of originality in these pages that makes more established poets look lazy and unimaginative. Moreover, and more importantly, there's maturity, an emotional gravitas that sees us through his wildest flights of imagination. Read "Laws of Gravity" or "A Minute's Silence" for examples of poetry using all the resources of heart and intelligence. As a poet I find Farley's talent at once liberating and intimidating. As a reader I'm inexpressibly grateful for such a richly entertaining volume.
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