If Lavinia Greenlaw's Minsk was about home, her new collection tests the proximities of elsewhere, 'the circle round our house', the road between two lives. Its title recalls a phrase of Robert Lowell's to describe Elizabeth Bishop -- one of the book's presiding spirits, with her insistence on the provisional, on the moment in which perception is formed, on landscape as action rather than description. The Casual Perfect continues Lavinia Greenlaw's explorations of light and the borders of vision, which include a journey to the four corners of Britain to observe the solstices and equinoxes, and a cycle about the East Anglian landscape which is nine-tenths sky. Questions of travel hover around many of these poems, or questions which need to be 'travelled fully' rather than answered -- and which involve the overheard and the glimpsed, what is gleaned from traces and external signs. The result is a collection that is under-stated, spare but inclusive, which invites our presence as readers.
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'Her fourth [book] and best, is continually inventive and surprising.' -- --Alan Brownjohn, Sunday Times Books of the Year
Book Description
The striking new collection from award-winning writer Lavinia Greenlaw
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Bookwoman
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This collection is like a good single malt: for savouring and repeated tasting. The poems are beautifully written and the imagery is rich. I have to admit to being stumped by the obscurity of the content in many instances but poems such as The Literal Body have a variety of interpretations and perhaps Greenlaw is allowing us that space. Fal Estuary is a gem, even if you've never been there. This collection definitely benefits from repeated readings. Recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By alextorres
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'll be honest - reading these poems, I rarely understood what Lavinia Greenlaw was really trying to say. However, the beauty of use of the language was such that it doesn't seem to matter. Greenlaw's use of words is fabulous - surely second to none - and there is a pleasure, as in all good poetry, of reading the poems aloud, finding the rhythm, the natural pauses with a resonance, and just being in the moment with the sound of the poem. Meaning may come with repeated reading and further thought, but understanding should not put anybody off acquiring this beautifully written poetry.
Gorgeous!
Gorgeous!
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