logo-cropped

Nottingham’s independent bookshop | 14a Long Row, Nottingham NG1 2DH | 0115 8373097

The Gifts of Fortune

McDonald, Peter
Format: Paperback
Publisher: CARCANET PRESS LTD
Published: May 28, 2020
ISBN: 9781784109431
98 pages

£11.99

The poems in The Gifts of Fortune, Peter McDonald’s seventh book of poems, cover a spectrum of personal history. They go to Belfast, Oxford, and further afield; in time they visit the poet’s pasts, his now, his possible futures. Autobiographical detail abounds: McDonald’s experiences (as a working-class boy in Belfast, who dreams of leaving, and a middle-aged Oxford don, who dreams of going back) are filtered through a deep instinct for poetic tradition. At the heart of the book are two sequences: one, ‘Mud’, in which family, professional, and literary histories are combined in strictly formal, but personally unguarded, reflections on poetry, class, and privilege; and another, ‘Blindness’, where a series of ten line units test poetic form to (and beyond) breaking-point, in a meditation on family and suffering, disappointment and hope. Other poems return to themes of wealth and poverty, love and loss, and the alienation and puzzlement of age. Throughout the book, form is ghosted by the formless, hovering just beyond the frame; and Fortune vies with Fate, quite another force.

Postage is calculated at 10% of your order value, minimum £1.00, up to a maximum of £3.00. There is a free postage option at checkout if you are housebound/shielding, on low income, or need help with postage costs for any other reason.  Your order will usually arrive within 2-3 working days.