We Poets (Paperback)

A uni friend told me about it so I bought it myself and started reading it after my exams. I took it on holiday with me. NEVER DO WHAT I DID! Leave We Poets at home or you will spend all your time reading instead of doing holiday stuff! My boyfriend was going mental at me with my face buried in We Poets all week!

It's really hard to explain what it's all about because it's about so many things! OK I'll start by saying how FUNNY it often is. Actually the funniest book I have ever read. But it's also one of the saddest books I have ever read. Really moving in parts. Bloody weird at times, mind you! It should be called Weird Poets! But even though it seems unhinged at times it's utterly sane too, what the writer has to say about things.

Bizarrely there's some science fiction type stories embedded in it, but they're really cool and clever. I know f**k all about science but I liked them. Each little SF ramble is like the outline of a film plot. A good plot, too.

Overall it's a satire on religion. And it's a study in how sensitive people can be driven to doubting their own sanity by the true insanity of the world around them. But it's also a strange love story. And a comedy! It's a f**king great comedy!!!

Honest, nothing I could say could really encapsulate this wonderful book so you'd better just read it yourself.

Although I relate to Albert I now understand how the rest of the world sees a depressed creative- as I did indeed want to tell him to 'pull himself together' and use his great genius. All of the characters in this book are given their own introduction, and interweaving naratives. Seeing the same story unfold through the eyes of many was fascinating. I found myself being able to predict the motives and gestures of each character, so well was the mental make-up and personalities described. I felt as though I really 'knew' them.

The story is filled with both human element and occasional complex scientific theory from Albert that had my mind digressing every now and again to ponder the information, even bringing up the theories to my friends in conversation. I felt educated as well as entertained.

'We Poets' will appeal to people who want a book that allows the reader to really get inside the heads of the characters, it's for people with creative souls who feel frustrated by the rat race in which we must all exist, or have hope to find someone like ourselves with whom we can cocoon ourselves and shut out the big bad world.

If you feel special or different, that no one would like you if they really knew what was going on inside your head, occasionally fantasise how many people would come and mourn for you at your funeral, or feel like running away from your life to teach people a lesson, you will be relieved to be introduced to Albert. Although if you think like that, Albert would not like you at all.

Never have I been so sad to finish a book, and thus I related to the character Jennifer- who sheds a tear when she finishes a book- even the happy ones....