Review by Choice Review
Maxwell is one of the most accomplished of the young British poets born in the 1960s. His highly acclaimed first book, Tale of the Mayor's Son (1990), caught the attention of American as well as British readers. In the present work he extends his talents for incisive commentary on the strangeness of contemporary British life as lived in the new suburbs. These poems sometimes pillory the foolishness of celebrity in our time, reenact the sadness and glory (usually temporary) of love, and relate the difficulties of the sensitive man in the face of various ungodly social institutions. It is the humor and energy of Maxwell's speakers that save them in these poems and redeem the lives they have to live. Maxwell has an agreeable talent for deflating the portentous with a comic wisecrack, and the technical skill to reproduce a young man's colloquial speech while writing within the strictures of traditional forms. A brilliant collection of poems, handsomely turned out by Bloodaxe Books, which is fast becoming Britain's finest press for poetry. Very highly recommended. B. Galvin Central Connecticut State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
