81 Austerities
Against the atmosphere of austerity, short sharp poems capture social pressure and the instability of self-awareness. Wit and unease coexist, and the form itself carries a sense of reduction.
Work Information
The stripped-down language makes the pressure of the moment stand out all the more.
81 Austerities is a collection of 81 short poems written against the backdrop of the 2011 austerity measures, where self-aware wit and social frustration push against each other. Its compressed form turns the atmosphere of the age into the motion of the poems themselves.
Review Summaries
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Readers respond to the wit and the sharp sense of the moment, though the strong irony and experimentation divide tastes. The sequence of short poems asks for quick responses from the reader.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber
- Published
- 2012-08-02
- Pages
- 128 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13 x 1 x 2 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780571289035
- ISBN-10
- 0571289037
- Price
- 3007 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction
All three-dimensional objects can be experienced in two dimensions: it just takes some careful unpicking of the seams. Witty, comic, plaintive, touching, acerbic, droll, cavalier, caffeinated, irreverent, stringent: Austerities , the mind-altering substantial debut from Sam Riviere, seems to achieve the impossible in being all things at once. Initially conceived as a response to the 'austerity measures' implemented by the coalition government in 2011, the poems quickly began taking on a life in kind: 'cutting' themselves on levels of sentiment, structure and even subject matter. Not content to merely build a series of freethinking poems, these remarkable pieces seem eagerly and mischievously to analyze their moment of creation, then weigh their worth, then consign their excess to the recycling bin thereafter. Experience is speedy, the poems seem to say, so dizzyingly fast that the poetry will inevitably be running to catch up - often arriving at a scene the moment after the moment has gone. The effect is as funny and it is startling, beguiling as it is surprising, and makes Austerities a vivid reminder that deprivation, as Leonard Cohen put it, can be the mother of poetry.
Sam Riviere is the author of the poetry books 81 Austerities (2012), Kim Kardashian's Marriage (2015), and After Fame (2020), as well as numerous limited-edition titles. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2009, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2012. Born in Norwich, he currently lives in London, where he runs the micropublisher If a Leaf Falls Press. His first novel, Dead Souls , is published by W&N in the UK and Catapult in the US. His latest poetry collection Conflicted Copy was published in 2024.
Reviews
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This is sharp!
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I've read hundreds of poetry collections and this is in the top five for me. Funny, smart, unpretentious.
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Exciting. Of the minute. Narky and subversive. Sam Reviere takes a trawl through various internet porn sights, chat rooms, drunken breakfasts and creepy, sadomasochistic theme parks and comes out with poetry. Poetry that is often, but not always, beautiful. The originality of his approach leads to the interesting take on modernity since Baudelaire. Sam Reviere will become a great poet if he keeps his feet glued to the pavement and his dirty fingers away from Kim Kardashien's curves.
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A really interesting and thought provoking read. A great collection of contemporary poems by a promising young poet. Well done Mr Riviere.
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I would not recommend it. I just don't like his stuff. I've read it twice.