Crisis Actor

£8.90£10.40 (-14%)

‘Who knew that writing with this degree of care and pain and tact was still possible? For my money it’s the best first volume in decades, I would say since Tom Paulin’s A State of Justice (1977): no dead weight, foot-perfect and engaging.’ Michael Hofmann, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

Crisis Actor chronicles various failures and farewells. It is peopled by faded heroes and deferential devotees; a hanged donkey, a bloated rat; solitary bachelors and disillusioned youths – these are the watchers, not the players. The poems are awash with rueful self-accusation and laconic scepticism. There are touching elegies, reportage and bruised, wary replayings. A blistering sequence about boxers and their fates weaves through the collection. The overwhelming sense is of life going on elsewhere, the halcyon days and brightest of years long past. This is the aftermath of being one who – in Matthew Arnold’s words – ‘has reached his utmost limits and finds . . . himself far less than he had imagined himself’.

But there are still flashes of camaraderie, of stars aligning: lunchtimes in sunlit garden squares, languorous pub afternoons, cheering on and hard-won triumphs. These precious, precarious moments point to how we might reclaim potential, discover human connection in times of defeat or despair, and reach towards grace and redemption.

‘Elegant and heartaching, these poems illuminate the sorrows of life with a bright flame, returning us to that miraculous human capacity for love and faith even in our darkest days.’ Liz Berry

‘Declan Ryan reveals himself a master of both the telling detail and of narrative suspense. Each exquisitely orchestrated vignette delivers a punch worthy of the heroes of the ring here commemorated.’ Mark Ford

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EAN: 2000000405629 SKU: 19893BB2 Category:

Additional information

Publisher

Faber & Faber, Main edition (6 July 2023)

Language

English

Paperback

72 pages

ISBN-10

0571371272

ISBN-13

978-0571371273

Dimensions

13 x 0.6 x 19.7 cm

Average Rating

3.50

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2 Reviews For This Product

  1. 02

    by Paul Sweeney

    Hints of Derek Mahon and that’s no bad thing.

  2. 02

    by Cat Turner

    The anti-lyrical style of a lot of the poems is wearing. Ryan’s use of form is very mechanical in places and the lineation could improve. You suspect he’s a bit cloth-eared. Some really good poems save this collection, though.

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Crisis Actor

£8.90£10.40 (-14%)

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