36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le
A winner of the Dylan Thomas prize for his short story collection, The Boat, Nam Le’s first poetry collection focuses on themes of anti-Asian racism, the after-effects of war trauma, Vietnamese diasporic identity and marginalisation from multiple perspectives. Constructed as a book-length poem, the 37 works here, each named after a type of violence or mode of intellectual inquiry, interrogate the complexities of intergenerational trauma, the challenges of assimilation in western society and the effects of cultural imperialism. Both personal and political, these incendiary poems offer a searing indictment of historical, cultural, linguistic and racial violence. “Your blood contains it. / What happened to them – / Your parents, theirs, all their kin”. One of the most powerful and memorable debuts I’ve read in recent years.
Three Births by K Patrick (Granta, £12.99)
This artful, sensual debut by one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists explores the fluidity of the body, queer love and desire. There is a refreshing insouciance to K Patrick’s writing, as in the opening poem, Pickup-Truck Sex, where the speaker confesses: “The ability to be both bodies is my fan- / tasy. Do you think that’s arrogant?” The poems celebrate fleeting moments of joy – “When I am alive it is / extraordinary” – as well as melancholia: “it feels good to be obvious after years / of misery, mystery, misery, mystery”. At times, the writing is reminiscent of a Woolfian stream of consciousness in its cerebral interaction with objects, people, places, nature and celebrities such as George Michael, Daniel Craig and Kylie. Patrick is unafraid of the vicissitudes of emotion, setting the atmosphere ablaze in a display of manic irony that is simultaneously hopeless, poignant and visceral: “I am a small, bossy son of God … Father, father, father, I’ll always go one step / further … do you appreciate the absolute beauty of my life …?”
