Synopses & Reviews
“Les Murray has earned his reputation not only as one of Australias finest writers but as one of the most engaging poets writing in English today.”
—Kate Kellaway,
The Observer (London)
Taller When Prone is Les Murrays first volume of new poems since The Biplane Houses, published in 2007. These poems combine a mastery of form with a matchless ear for the Australian vernacular. Many evoke rural life in Australia and elsewhere—its rhythms and rituals, the natural world, the landscape and the people who have shaped it. There are travelers tales, elegies, meditative fragments, and satirical sketches. Above all, there is Murrays astonishing versatility, on display here at its exhilarating best.
“Equipped with a fierce moral vision and a sensuous musicality, [Murray] writes subtly about postcolonialism, urban sprawl and poverty and, in his most intimate poems, reminds us of the power of literature to transubstantiate grievance into insight. (His admirers have argued he ought to be considered for a Nobel.) But he is equally capable of writing emotionally simplistic and strangely soured poems in which the enraged adolescent emerges all but unmediated. This mercurial doubleness can make his work hard to categorize or describe: this is a mind at once revolutionary and reactionary. Or maybe just a poet whos willing to show more id than most.” —Meghan ORourke, The New York Times Book Review
Review
“Equipped with a fierce moral vision and a sensuous musicality . . . [Murray] writes subtly about postcolonialism, urban sprawl and poverty and, in his most intimate poems, reminds us of the power of literature to transubstantiate grievance into insight. (His admirers have argued he ought to be considered for a Nobel.) But he is equally capable of writing emotionally simplistic and strangely soured poems in which the enraged adolescent emerges all but unmediated. This mercurial doubleness can make his work hard to categorize or describe: this is a mind at once revolutionary and reactionary. Or maybe just a poet whos willing to show more id than most.” —Meghan O'Rourke, The New York Times Book Review “Mr. Murrays verse wears, from the waist up, a cosmopolitan, Philip Larkin-like wit. From the waist down, it dresses in worn dungarees and mud-caked boots. Theres a sense of rural astringency . . . Mr. Murray employs both rhyme and meter, but variably—hes like a man walking a large, randy, omnivorous dog on a retractable leash. He can cinch his words tightly in an instant; he owns one of poetrys most sensitive verbal choke collars. ” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Review
“Mr. Murrays verse wears, from the waist up, a cosmopolitan, Philip Larkin-like wit. From the waist down, it dresses in worn dungarees and mud-caked boots. Theres a sense of rural astringency . . . Mr. Murray employs both rhyme and meter, but variably—hes like a man walking a large, randy, omnivorous dog on a retractable leash. He can cinch his words tightly in an instant; he owns one of poetrys most sensitive verbal choke collars. ” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Synopsis
"Les Murray has earned his reputation not only as one of Australia's finest writers but as one of the most engaging poets writing in English today." --Kate Kellaway, The Observer (London)
Taller When Prone is Les Murray's first volume of new poems since The Biplane Houses, published in 2007. These poems combine a mastery of form with a matchless ear for the Australian vernacular. Many evoke rural life in Australia and elsewhere--its rhythms and rituals, the natural world, the landscape and the people who have shaped it. There are traveler's tales, elegies, meditative fragments, and satirical sketches. Above all, there is Murray's astonishing versatility, on display here at its exhilarating best.
"Equipped with a fierce moral vision and a sensuous musicality, Murray] writes subtly about postcolonialism, urban sprawl and poverty and, in his most intimate poems, reminds us of the power of literature to transubstantiate grievance into insight. (His admirers have argued he ought to be considered for a Nobel.) But he is equally capable of writing emotionally simplistic and strangely soured poems in which the enraged adolescent emerges all but unmediated. This mercurial doubleness can make his work hard to categorize or describe: this is a mind at once revolutionary and reactionary. Or maybe just a poet who's willing to show more id than most." --Meghan O'Rourke, The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Taller When Prone is Les Murrays first volume of new poems since
The Biplane Houses, published in 2007. These poems combine a mastery of form with a matchless ear for the Australian vernacular. Many evoke rural life in Australia and elsewhere—its rhythms and rituals, the natural world, the landscape and the people who have shaped it. There are travelers tales, elegies, meditative fragments, and satirical sketches. Above all, there is Murrays astonishing versatility, on display here at its exhilarating best.
Synopsis
A
New York Times Notable Book for 2011
Taller When Prone is Les Murrays first volume of new poems since
The Biplane Houses, published five years ago. These poems combine a mastery of form with a matchless ear for the Australian vernacular. Many evoke rural life here and abroad—its rhythms and rituals, the natural world, the landscape and the people who have shaped it. There are travelers tales, elegies, meditative fragments, and satirical sketches. Above all, there is Murrays astonishing versatility, on display here at its exhilarating best.
Fame
We were at dinner in Soho and the couple at the next table rose to go. The woman paused to say to me: I just wanted you to know I have got all your cook books and I swear by them!
I managed to answer her: Ma'am they've done you nothing but good! which was perhaps immodest of whoever I am.
About the Author
Les Murray is the author of many books of poetry. His collection Subhuman Redneck Poems received the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1996, and in 1998 he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, presented by Queen Elizabeth II. He lives in New South Wales, Australia.