The Strange Years of My Life (Paperback)

Nicholas Laughlin

ISBN 10: 1845232925 / ISBN 13: 9781845232924

Published by Peepal Tree Press Ltd, Yorkshire, 2015

About this Item

Paperback. "I never thought I would come all this wayto come all this way."The troupe of "friends" and "strangers" whom the reader meets in these poems are sometimes alter egos, sometimes aliases, sometimes adversaries. Located in worlds such as those of French film noir, spy movies, and travellers' tales, they inhabit a milieu of mistaken identity, deliberate disguise and random encounters in hotels. For the voyager, "there are too many wrong countries" and "already no one remembers you at home." Despite the book's title, these poems are rarely autobiographical - though the tastes they reveal are intriguing - and they have few straightforward stories to tell. They are subtly humorous at one turn, sinister at another, heartbroken at the next. They puzzle over accidents, coincidences, and moments of passion, as they edge towards a sense of the world's curious strangeness, the complications of history and the encounters brought by the geography of migration. Poems balance on the edge between concealment and revelation, between bemused fascination and tentative comprehension.Yet for all the disguises, the book offers glimpses of a distinctive and engaging sensibility involved with art, language and the nature of love. While Trinidad is scarcely mentioned, this is, if obliquely, the work of a poet trying to make sense of what it means to write in such an island society. Despite the book's title, these poems are rarely autobiographical - though the tastes they reveal are intriguing - and they have few straightforward stories to tell. While Trinidad is scarcely mentioned, this is, if obliquely, the work of a poet trying to make sense of what it means to write in such an island society. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781845232924

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Strange Years of My Life (Paperback)
• Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd, Yorkshire
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845232925
• ISBN 13: 9781845232924
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Despite the book’s title, these poems are rarely autobiographical and have few straightforward stories to tell. They puzzle over accidents, coincidences, and codes, as they describe journeys and wonders, edging towards a sense of the world’s curious strangeness, the complications of what we call history, the contretemps of geography. The poems belong to a hemisphere of the imagination that encompasses the narratives of 19th-century travelers and 20th-century anthropologists, spy movies, astronomical lore, the writings of Saint-John Perse and Henri Michaux, and the music of Erik Satie. They balance on the edge between concealment and revelation, between fascination and comprehension. For these poems, every sentence is a kind of translation, and language is a series of riddles with no solutions, subtly humorous at one phrase, sinister at another, heartbroken at the next.

About the Author

Nicholas Laughlin is the editor of the literary journal the Caribbean Review of Books and the culture and travel magazine Caribbean Beat. He is the program director of the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, and a codirector of Alice Yard, a nonprofit contemporary art space in Port of Spain.