BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Publication Date: 15-Apr-12 | ISBN: 9781844714261 | Trim Size: 198 x 129 mm | Extent: 96pp | Format: Hardback

UK & International Distribution:   | Publishing Status: Active

SYNOPSIS

THE RESTRUCTURE tells the story, through a series of poems, of the circumstances leading to the conception of a boy and his delivery into a difficult world. Born with a condition that requires long stretches in hospital the author attempts to view the world through the senses of the boy who is yet to learn language. This play of words presents the challenges of the world in a new light. The backdrop of the book is social unrest, but the author and boy – who has 40 different pseudonyms – push back against the monotone order of THE RESTRUCTURE (the all-controlling voice that appears throughout as a public service announcement) through the surreal inventions of words and games. This is a gripping book of contrasts, conjuring a life of extreme polarities that is always striving for a resolution, towards a restructured world.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE RESTRUCTURE; A First Wish; The Rules Of Attraction; Housemates, Or How It Starts; THE RESTRUCTURE; Break Of Day; THE RESTRUCTURE; Cornwall In 3 Trimesters; 30th Birthday, Musselburgh; Midnought; Week 31 Scan; THE RESTRUCTURE; The Midwitches; The Birth; THE RESTRUCTURE; Paternity Leave; Red; THE RESTRUCTURE; The Renaming; Mr Schmiggles; THE RESTRUCTURE; An Abc Of First Light; THE RESTRUCTURE; Wake big & down dares; Shark Attack; How To Make Me Human; Citalopram Advent; The Therapists; The Bird Cure; THE RESTRUCTURE; Pavel’s 1st Art Lesson; Blue Sun; You’re Meat Book; THE RESTRUCTURE; Birthweights; Kingfisher; Nettles; THE RESTRUCTURE; In The ‘Z’ Section; Notes

PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK

“In THE RESTRUCTURE, Chris McCabe's innovative, dexterous, playful and sinuous poems invite us into a world of fast-moving impressions, of fragmentation and reconstruction, of exuberantly original imagery and a constant willingness to question and experiment. The poems exploring pregnancy, birth and early childhood are both tender and visceral, from a daring poet at the height of his powers. Reading Chris McCabe is like watching an acrobat performing a series of perfectly executed backflips, then land on his feet, barely out of breath.” —Catherine Smith

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS

“McCabe writes with the lower-case lightness of Tom Raworth and the northern comic realism of Simon Armitage.” —The Guardian

“Chris McCabe … seems able to render huge political topics into small dense lines pregnant with meaning and humour.” —Poetry Review

“Images and ideas are compressed with the immediacy of texts or blogs.” —The Guardian

“I also admire Chris McCabe's many-edged snaps of society and politics and Daljit Nagra's mordant monologues and syntactical experiments. All of these poets seem influenced by work outside of the mainstream, yet none will be satisfied ploughing the rainy margins.” —Roddy Lumsden Magma

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Chris McCabe was born in Liverpool in 1977. His poetry collections are The Hutton Inquiry and Zeppelins. He has recorded a CD with The Poetry Archive and written a play Shad Thames, Broken Wharf, which was performed at the London Word Festival and subsequently published by Penned in the Margins in 2010. He works as a Librarian at The Poetry Library, London, and teaches for The Poetry School.