Snail In My Prime
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:1st Jul '99
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
'The present selection serves to confirm his almost iconic place in contemporary Irish poetry' - Derek Mahon, Irish Times
First published in 1993, this contains the poet's own selection of his life's work.
Since the publication of his first book in 1967, Paul Durcan has made satirical, celebratory and extraordinarily moving poetry out of his country's fortunes and misfortunes. His readings are legendary and each new collection, from his collaboration with Brain Lynch, Endsville (1967) to Daddy, Daddy (winner of the 1990 Whitbread Poetry Award), Crazy about Women (1991) and Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil (1999) has borne out the truth of Ezra Pound's dictum that "literature is news that stays news".
This book contains Durcan's own selection from his work. It is a literary milestone that has set the seal on his reputation as a poet of international standing.
To have heard him adds another pleasure to the reading of the work- but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing intimacy, politics and love. He holds a mirror up to himself: but we can see ourselves over his shoulder, whoever we are -- Carol Ann Duffy * Guardian *
Durcan's... tall stories, dialogues and choruses, remind us that poetry can have popular reach and embody a genuinely countrywide spirit, without sacrificing integrity -- Glyn Maxwell * Independent on Sunday *
Durcan's mastery of tone, his manic confidentiality, his blithe expositions of the seemingly unthinkable, his hypnotic repetitions of what other poets would hardly dare to utter once, all help to give [his work] an air of audacious authority unique in contemporary poetry -- Brendan Kennnelly * Irish Times *
For him poetry is story-telling and his stories are told in a direct fashion that makes them totally accessible... Paul Durcan's poetry sings -- Roger McGough * Sunday Tribune *
Like all first-class comedians, he is deadly serious -- Terry Eagleton * Stand *
ISBN: 9781860461873
Dimensions: 216mm x 135mm x 21mm
Weight: 307g
288 pages