My Struggle, Vol.5: Some Rain Must Fall
Karl Ove Knausgaard (Vintage, 8.99)
At the start of the latest instalment of his "autobiographical novel", Knausgaard is accepted into the prestigious Writing Academy in Bergen, Norway. He is 20 years old and full of vigour and talent. Nevertheless, he is overcome with self-pity and drinks away his youth. There is nothing original about this story. It is a conventional tale of romantic delusion feeding off the person it inhabits. Reading this tome, one hopes that Knausgaard will at some point realise that being a writer has little to do with garrets, wine and endless self-absorption. All and sundry have commented on how addictive and maddening My Struggle is, and it’s true: it’s full of inconsequential detail, dead prose and cringing honesty. What Knausgaard captures, however, is the jittery and squalid development of a writer’s mind. There is also a cumulative magic to the world he creates and a beguiling sense that the protagonist, real or not, is writing his way into life and discovering some brutal truths.
The Voyage Out: An Anthology
Ed Kirsty Gunn and Gail Low (The Voyage Out Press, £12.99)
Sailing out of Dundee University, this anthology on the theme and in the spirit of journeys is a treasure chest, albeit with some fool’s gold hidden inside. Brian Cox’s autobiographical portrait is little more than self-aggrandisement. Amit Chaudhry’s essay on Frederic Jameson sheds as much light on this arch-obfuscator as it does on postmodernism. There is, however, a rich variety of writers, from scientists to poets. Ron Hay, for instance, writes from his position as biochemist. An expert in arsenic, he traces the ways in which traditional Chinese medicine helped uncover the curative properties of this poison. The two best pieces are from writers known for their pellucid prose. Robert McFarlane’s predictably excellent essay Ghostlines starts from a crack on his neighbour’s house and expands to an exploration of the embattled landscape of the south-east coast of England. Peter Davidson’s Four Variations On Exile And Return is a beautiful prose-poem that leaves in the mind shimmering images of longing and regret.
The Bright Tethers, Poems: 1988-2016
David Cameron (Rún Press, £10)
David Cameron is not your usual, institutionalised poet. He’s made his way in the real world and written his poems on the side of his everyday life. He is 50 years old and this is his first collection. The poems are arranged thematically, not chronologically, which accounts for the unevenness in quality. Part of Rún Press’s Pocket Poems series, this small book is ideal for the stravaiging reader. The territory of Cameron’s poems traces the movements in his life. Born in Glasgow, he has spent many years in Amsterdam. One of the most compelling sections is a sonnet sequence written by a fictional Dutch author, Michiel de Koning, and supposedly translated by Cameron. They are sad and touching meditations on lost love. The people that populate Cameron’s poems are often strangers, and there are some good lines on the absences that haunt all our lives. Cameron also demonstrates a sophisticated use of rhyme, a technique many poets, oddly, have forgotten about.
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