- Paperback: 48 pages
- Publisher: Picador (7 Jan 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330371932
- ISBN-13: 978-0330371933
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 12.6 x 0.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 761,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Colette Bryce's debut poetry collection brings to mind Borges' essay on the Argentinian writer, in which Borges suggests that writers steeped in their own culture do not resort to local colour because it is taken for granted. It is therefore not surprising that Bryce, born in Derry in 1970, one year after Bloody Sunday should not dwell on what was always there.
Only a handful of poems mention the Troubles explicitly. In "Line", she traces the line that forms the Saturday limits given by her mother and the line that divides the city, "ravelling under the traffic / up, you're the guttering scaling McCafferty's, / maze through the slating, / dive from sight and down into history, Line..." The transition from individual to universal takes you completely off-guard. In "Break", Bryce uses child-like simplicity again when a young girl befriends a "soldier boy", who asks her to buy him some cigarettes. "Look at my Miraculous Medal. / Let me punch your bullet-proof vest. Go on try."
With fairytale ease, the girl doesn't realise what's behind the eye of the gun. While some of this collection seems a little premature and the poems are not well ordered, poems like "Itch" are impressive. "I believe that Jesus lives / deep in the ditch of my mother's ear." The daughter thinks that her mother cannot hear her because of the whispering sound of Jesus's breath. In "Footings" and "Father, in the face", the voice is more even and resolved and "the leap approach to life" suggests both the poet's inexperience and her eager enthusiasm, characterising a notable debut. --Cherry Smyth
Product Description
This is the first collection from a young poet from Northern Ireland. There is a woman who feels sick as she prepares a turkey for Christmas dinner; the boys who sit on a wall ouside the Bolger trial; and lovers' telephone calls.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear-sighted and emotionally true,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Heel of Bernadette: Poems (Paperback)
Clear-sighted and emotionally true, with a gift for the near-lyric, Colette Bryce's debut collection may remind the reader of poets as different as Elizabeth Bishop and Michael Longley. However, she is clearly living in her own voice and my only regret is that the book wasn't longer.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thoroughly rewarding experience.,
By peadar82@hotmail.com (Belfast) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Heel of Bernadette: Poems (Paperback)
A great book of oems from an exciting new talent. "Heel of Bernadette" is a tour de force.In simple terms it examines various life experiences from school experiences through to romantic longigs and beyond. The poetry has a mystical quality which takes the reader on a rythmically haunting journey of the heart. A thoroughly rewarding experience.
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