|
·
Commentary
·
 These
verses and conversation, which go straight to some
of our deepest worries, aggressions and puzzles,
are written in the tradition of music-hall and
cabaret. Reading them is like going to an intimate
revue. Each scene, each number is complete in
itself but compels us to read the next. Everyone
will do so in his or her own accent and yet it will
find that the echoes are quite specific because the
forms of this allusive writing derive from jazz,
from nursery rhymes, from popular songs and from
writers like Johnny Mercer, Thomas Wyatt, Dorothy
Parker and Robert Burns.
The
shock, the almost physical effect, of these pieces
works beccause the author has moved the analysis of
our problems out of the solemnity of the textbook
and the consulting room into the humanity of street
songs.
The
book is an astonishing tour de force, it is funny,
savage and sometimes even scurrilous, but it
successfully avoids flippancy, callousness and
sentimentality. It explores all the resonances of
that painful question, 'Do you love me?'
-
Jacket notes from the Penguin edition.
|
·
Excerpts
·
|
|
|
26
|
take
this pill
to help you not to shout.
It takes away the life
you're better off without
|
|
15
|
she
he
she
he
she
he
she
he
she
he
she
he
she
he
|
you
were going to ask me what I wanted for a
birthday present
O yes. I forgot. What would you like?
guess
the head of John the Baptist
don't be frivolous
what then?
a divorce
it's too expensive
O darling please
I'll see what I can do but I can't
promise
promise you'll do your best
promise
(kisses)
(kisses)
|
|
37
|
hello
(casually)
yes it is (absently)
no (uncuriously)
really (with some surprise)
whose was it (out of
politeness)?
mine (incredulously)!
when (challengingly)?
really (interestedly)
ah ha (reminiscently)
mmmm (musingly)
you should have told me
(ironically)
a pity I couldn't have had it for you
(gleefully)
there it is (grimly)
give me a ring sometime
(dutifully)
you could always have another
(brutally)
c'est la vie (consolingly)
goodbye (sincerely)
|
|
![Bibliography Main Page [link]](bibliopg.gif){kind=small}
