http://www.literateur.com Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:12:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en THE BREAKFAST ROOM Stewart Conn Bloodaxe Books, Paperback, 24th February 2010, pp64; ISBN 978-1-85224-856-7 Price £8.95 Phil Sidney The geniality and generosity of Stewart Conn as a narrator is established right from the beginning. ‘Invitation’ welcomes the reader into The Breakfast Room where, proffering an umbrella, he solicitously advises her to keep ‘a lookout // for ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/the-breakfast-room-by-stewart-conn/ Alan Fielden Throw, the first stone, lover. Who brought me from nothing and to whom I have given less. If I lie and promise sunlight, would you understand. And when I flail, through glassy words and porous silence. Can I smile and say, “That wasn’t me”? Whilst the moon, calm and bare, reflects the inferno so honestly? That three-tier phrase, ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/poem-for-a-partnership/ Reality Hunger by David Shields Hamish Hamilton; Hardback; 240 pages; Price £17.99; ISBN 9780241144992 Dan Eltringham First, a series of radical pronouncements: narrative prose fiction has ‘never seemed less central to the culture’s sense of itself’; the ‘novel qua novel is a form of nostalgia’; and, more generally, ‘forms serve the culture; when they die, they ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/reality-hunger-by-david-shields/ The Loss Adjustor Aifric Campbell Demy Hardback 250 pages ISBN: 9781846687303 Daniel Hudspith The Loss Adjustor is a novel about disconnection, about how occurrences in one's life can cause fissures in relationships, in perception and, ultimately, in oneself. The titular character, Caroline, is haunted by events in her childhood and has retreated to the relative safety ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/the-loss-adjustor-by-aifric-campbell/ THE LAST PATRIARCH Najat El-Hachmi Serpent’s Tail; Paperback; 306 pages; ISBN 9781846687174; RRP £9.99 Published April 29th 2010 Alice Kelly Najat El-Hachmi’s debut novel, The Last Patriarch (L’últim patriarca in Catalan), is effectively three stories in one: simultaneously a trauma narrative of abuse, an immigration narrative and a female bildungsroman. As a bestseller in Spain ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/the-last-patriarch-by-najat-el-hachmi/ Stephanie Yorke Chemistry never rests. Something’s converted each time, given time. I eroded on the bench, under the organ pipes, God’s own woofers and tweeters, oxidizing lime tears, sound’s empathetic breakdown. Enter Miss Dennis, chiming: Mavis check your posture. Straightening my hymnal spine. Play it open. Now stopped. Again, stopped. Her fingering over mine: a splint for weak music, pacing the ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/03/the-organist-recounts/ AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer Simon and Schuster, Paperback; 384 Pages ISBN: 9781847373960 Price:£12.99 James Tanner A surprising amount of art, for want of a better word, is entitled ‘American...’ To name but a few: in film, we have Grafitti and Gangster; in literature, Pastoral and Psycho; in music, both Girl and Woman (not to ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/02/american-rust-by-philipp-meyer/ Joshua Roche The largest pearl in the world was ruined when the shell was boiled open – Prose note to Paterson, William Carlos Williams ‘Yes, yes, the salty Pleiades, Language under your knuckles, But there were hundreds of us.’ Toes deep, Tom, at the bottom of the fall; Collecting dirt deep down in Paterson. Sedimented grain by ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/02/from-america/ A Found Poem By Anna McKerrow Opposite a block of control / Him to make him / a woman / Crowded on a table / Protest that she is not / In fact / A-real / And next door to / a garage! / She picks up smile /Says, help / Talking / ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/02/the-studio-of-paula-rego/ Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey Faber and Faber; Hardback; 464 pages; 9780571253296; Price £18.99 Annie McDermott First of all, this is not a book about America. The book about America is what the French aristocrat Olivier, sent to investigate the prisons of the new democracy, is dictating to his secretary Parrot. ... http://www.literateur.com/2010/02/parrot-and-olivier-in-america/