from the book of living or dying

Author: Sean Bonney

Publisher: Veer Books (2024)

"The voice 'dead a hundred years … from the bottom of the Thames … ' speaks: 'my friend and I tore up the pavements and sucked all the ghosts out ….' Thereafter through 3 chapters it modulates into collage, disconnected discursive fragments, fractured narrative and a derisive scenario; throughout death lurks in the background of a society defined by political oppression and haunted by its spectral victims.

'we crawl out from the river and knock on the doors of dead poets when they answer with violence we are less than amazed …'

The challenge is a genuine collectivity: 'from highgate through hackney and holloway towards london.'

This collection from 1999 foreshadows the themes of later work with a less relentless approach. But though more unpredictably deployed its energies are no less obvious.’

—Adrian Clarke