Well, a couple of people have read my
books. Fastest out of the blocks was my Norwegian friend Steinar Lillehaug, who has
already reviewed Blinded by Love or Science and 1969 A Year in a Life inhis blog Ved Kjokkenbordet (At the Kitchen table) in which he discusses
old and new books in an informal way. Steinar and I spent a year together at
Agder Folkehogskule in Kristiansand, in the south of Norway, in the early
1970s. He writes his review in Norwegian, and as not everybody reads that
language, I have selected a few points which I find worth mentioning.
“The books are good. Read them!” is his
main message, or at least it’s the main message I want to pass on to you here!
Talking about the collection of poems Blinded
he says he likes the poems about astronomy and astrophysics in particular: the
ones I say are about the poetryof creation, where poetry and science come
closest to each other. He compares some of my poems to the Liverpool Poets
(Henry, McGough et al) which is flattering. He mentions the great diversity of
styles and themes in the collection and that is something I am proud of. Some of the longer poems could have been
tightened up, he suggests, and I agree. I chose the poems without consulting
anyone, and there was no-one to peg me back. I think a friendly critical
eye such as Steinar’s would have helped here, to blow away a bit of the chaff.
Steinar, himself, seems to have a predilection for the more structured poems; he
mentions the one sonnet I included, while he considers To Count the Harmony, a high point of the collection. It’s about the Alhambra in Granada, where
I live, and talks about trying to capture in words and rational thought the
wonderful architectural harmony you have before you. It was a difficult poem to
write, so I am glad Steinar thinks highly of it.
Turning to the memoir 1969
he talks about the narrator’s humble posture, - or is it the author’s? Yes, it’s
another story about the perennial search for love and meaning in life with its
up and downs, its dilemmas, its doubts and anxieties against the background of
Swinging London and imperialist wars and conflict. It raises the question of how
to become a good human being and if I had focused on this theme, Steinar
suggests, the story would have gained more weight and backbone. This is such a
perspicacious remark and I have to say that this question how to become a good
human being only gets mentioned in passing in my earliest drafts. It was only
later on that I began to appreciate the relevance it has for my narration.
A number of Steinar’s readers
will know me and might be curious about what I have written, so he ends his
review reminding them that these ebooks can be bought for what a morning coffee
and daily newspaper would cost them at their nearest Narvesen kiosk:
But I hope non-Norwegians will
also be attracted by this résumé of Steinar’s blog post and encouraged to buy a
copy.
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