POETRY MONTH: poetry reviews from the vaults
before a month of all new all poetry reviews, check out a selection from the TotN vaults!
Tag: review
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
an excellent novel; in footnotes my concluding thoughts on the TV series The Affair
Joan Didion: The 1980s & 90s (PART THREE)
i cannot read myself happy
Joan Didion: The 1980s & 90s (PART TWO)
if u see a dead racoon at the side of the road
Not Really A Review of Not Really A Year
my year was deathly dull, which in 2020 counts as a good year
Selected Poems by Marianne Moore
the building i live in got on fire in lockdown
Queen Mob’s Teahouse: Teh Book edited by Russell Bennetts
some inevitably biased hagiography
Silas Marner by George Eliot
a lovely fucking novel
Now, Now, Louison by Jean Frémon
an enjoyable but intellectually presumptive novella
Bad Boy Poet by Scott Manley Hadley
Reviewed by Karina Bush
Bad Boy Poet by Scott Manley Hadley
Review by L. Tumbleweed Parker. CW: ableist language
The First Day by Phil Harrison
mainstream literary fiction that I very nearly love
The Foreign Passion / La Pasión Extranjera by Cristian Aliaga
very very good Argentine poems
In Love With HS2 & Awards Excitement
new article & award attention elsewhere
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is an ode to adventure capitalism. My life is an ode to wine.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Can I write about writing about race without discussing race? No.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
In America alone, 281 pounds of pig shit is produced for every one person per year. I don’t know if that’s a lot as I don’t know what a pound is.
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz
Have you ever had a dream? Have you ever dreamt a day, a week, a month, a year? Have youContinue Reading
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
I don’t know where this book came from. I know I bought it, I’m pretty certain I went out ofContinue Reading
The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner
A lot of people don’t read poetry. A lot of people who read a lot of books, don’t read poetry. AContinue Reading
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is my first blog post in a while, and even then it’s still happening a little earlier than expected.Continue Reading
Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
Martin John by Anakana Schofield
I’ve accidentally grown a goatee and as a result of this I now look like a sex pervert*. This wasContinue Reading
The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs by Geoff Dyer
Well, as some of you may be aware, I’m off having adventures. Yes, again. After an 18 month stint inContinue Reading
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
When I read the first volume of Elena Ferrante’s lauded Neapolitan Novels series, many of the conversations being had about itContinue Reading
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
I’m an abyss filling up with regret and alcohol at equal measure, like a really wet martini.
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] by Andrew Hankinson
My new puppy hasn’t been very well. I’ve spent the day taking him to the vets and watching him sleep,Continue Reading
Zona by Geoff Dyer
I’m on a flight, heading eastwards for 36 hours in Bucharest[1]. Flying out of Luton at 10pm on a MondayContinue Reading
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
fuck So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckContinue Reading
Flaubert in Egypt by Gustave Flaubert (kind of)*
Flaubert in Egypt is ostensibly (though it isn’t) a book written by Gustave Flaubert about his hedonistic travels through EgyptContinue Reading
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
I’ve been reading a massive book* since I got back from my holiday last month, and have only just reached its end.Continue Reading
Midland: A Novel Out of Time by Honor Gavin
midlands novel and a road trip into childhood
To Wetumpka by Ellis Sharp
A couple of weeks ago, I got a strange email from a small publishing house, Zoilus Press. They said thatContinue Reading
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Big books. I have an odd relationship with ’em. The idea of big books, to be honest, I have aContinue Reading
The Tongues of Men or Angels by Jonathan Trigell
I like Biblical novels. So much so that I wrote one*, and so much so that after reading about ten/twenty,Continue Reading
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard
For the past four years, the big literary release (for me) has been the continuing publication of Karl Ove Knausgaard’sContinue Reading
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
I’m going to be honest, I did not get what the point of Molloy was. Oooh, it was Beckettian; itContinue Reading
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas
Obnoxiously (the manner in which I do most things), I read Tarjei Vesaas’ The Birds because Karl Ove Knausgaard refersContinue Reading
The Great War by Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco’s wordless, 8 metre long panorama of the first day of the Battle of the Somme is a harrowingContinue Reading
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Both the blurb and the author biography of my 1980s edition of Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf state that thisContinue Reading
Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Isabel Allende is brilliant, an under-rated writer of supreme skill,Continue Reading
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Fuck it, I’m going to discuss the plot. MONKEYS. It’s about MONKEYS. Or, to be technical, chimps. Chimpanzees (which aren’tContinue Reading
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
Child of God was Cormac McCarthy’s third novel, and is the first book of his I’ve read for a while.Continue Reading
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath
I intended to read Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams for a while, but held off doing so forContinue Reading
Penguin Modern Stories 7
I sourced this 1971 collection of short stories for one simple reason: ‘For Bolocks Please Read Blocks Throughout’, a B.Continue Reading
Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac
Last Summer, whilst twatpacking* around the Mediterranean, Tunisair lost my backpack between Casablanca and Tunis. Though it contained nothing ofContinue Reading
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is, I must begrudgingly admit, a great Haruki Murakami novel. One ofContinue Reading
How to be both by Ali Smith
Ali Smith’s latest novel – How to be both – has been shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker PrizeContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 