The Good News
Published on 15. April 2013
Book
Hardback
96 pages
978-1-907773-42-6 (ISBN)
Description
"Today you turn up
five habits to quit for happiness:
criticism, control, complaint, excuses, expectations,
without which you'd be happy, bland
and unbearable."
(from `Thirteen')
Is the attempt to secure happiness worth making? Or is it simply a fast track to inevitable disenchantment? Rob A. Mackenzie confronts such questions in The Good News, his second full collection, but it's no self-help manual. Fate, faith, travel, love, politics and death are woven into taut, affecting poems, which reveal new layers with every reading: a professional sceptic tries in vain not to become too certain of his own doubt, angels weep in Spanish into their designer coffees, and a hundred Scottish poets are enlisted to articulate the trials and tribulations of their nation at a key point in its history. The book's central section is a sequence concerning autism's effect on family life. Poets have written about autism before, but no one has written anything quite like this.
Mackenzie offers a typically versatile collection in style and form, combining an inimitable sensibility and imagination with a secure command of tone. These poems confirm his growing reputation as one of our most intriguing and alluring voices.
five habits to quit for happiness:
criticism, control, complaint, excuses, expectations,
without which you'd be happy, bland
and unbearable."
(from `Thirteen')
Is the attempt to secure happiness worth making? Or is it simply a fast track to inevitable disenchantment? Rob A. Mackenzie confronts such questions in The Good News, his second full collection, but it's no self-help manual. Fate, faith, travel, love, politics and death are woven into taut, affecting poems, which reveal new layers with every reading: a professional sceptic tries in vain not to become too certain of his own doubt, angels weep in Spanish into their designer coffees, and a hundred Scottish poets are enlisted to articulate the trials and tribulations of their nation at a key point in its history. The book's central section is a sequence concerning autism's effect on family life. Poets have written about autism before, but no one has written anything quite like this.
Mackenzie offers a typically versatile collection in style and form, combining an inimitable sensibility and imagination with a secure command of tone. These poems confirm his growing reputation as one of our most intriguing and alluring voices.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
With printed dust jacket
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-907773-42-6 (9781907773426)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rob A. Mackenzie was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. His previous work includes The Opposite of Cabbage (Salt 2009) and two pamphlets: Fleck and the Bank (Salt 2012), which dramatized a bank employee's life during the financial crisis, and The Clown of Natural Sorrow, (HappenStance Press 2005). Carrie Etter, in the TLS, wrote that his first collection impressed "with its distinctive style and energetic exploration of the way we live now." He is reviews editor for Magma Poetry magazine.