{"id":3102,"date":"2013-08-19T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T12:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2016-01-23T18:14:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T17:14:34","slug":"rosalind-hudis-terra-ignota-and-susan-grindley-new-reader-rack-press-5-reviewed-by-ian-pople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102","title":{"rendered":"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rosalind Hudis <em>Terra Ignota<\/em> (Rack Press) \u00a35.00<br \/>\nSusan Grindley <em>New Reader<\/em> (Rack Press) \u00a35.00<\/p>\n<p>It is a clich\u00e9 of contemporary criticism to say that art treats the liminal, that which sits on the edge.  Often the liminal is treated as just that;  a thing which simply sits at the edge, representing a kind of boundary, or no-mans-land.  And art often effects to be that boundary; porous, osmotic, allowing one side or both sides of that boundary to bleed into the other. Susan Grindley has witty, oblique view from the edge, that engages with the way that reading bleeds into our lives.  Such bleeding provides us with worlds that not only provide perspectives on our lives but may sometimes anchor them.  In the first poem of her pamphlet New Reader, \u2018Face Down\u2019, the narrator as a child is being read Alice in Wonderland.  Thoroughly frightened by Tenniel\u2019s illustrations, and particularly the faces with their \u2018sharp, thin lines\u2019, the child realises that actually she needs to hear the story finished so that she can absorb Alice\u2019s bravery against these faces.  <\/p>\n<p>Grindley can also suggest the ambiguities and ambivalences of reading. Here, reading is not only and anchor and a solace, but may also lead to uncertainty. In \u2018Soliloquy\u2019, a contemporary Hamlet could have learned his lessons from \u2018the notes from Guildenstern\/and easily caught up.  It\u2019s not as though\/ I haven\u2019t done the reading, \u2018Words, words, words!\u2019 And, yet, for Hamlet, too, reading might just have led him to a more comfortable, even mundane existence.  <\/p>\n<p>Grindley\u2019s favoured form is a poised and warm un-rhymed sonnet, and she works the demands of the form with great dexterity and aplomb.  <\/p>\n<p>Rosalind Hudis\u2019 Terra Ignota not only explores an \u2018unknown land\u2019, but attempts the immensely difficult task of seeing from both sides of the border between the known and the unknown.  And in so doing, the poetry acknowledges both the impossibility of the latter and the utter necessity of trying.  Hudis\u2019 musical and poignant writing describes the interaction between those whom society designates as \u2018unimpaired\u2019 and those whom it diagnoses as \u2018impaired\u2019:  a family who live on the Welsh hillside with the legacy of Chernobyl and leukaemia; a woman with Alzheimer\u2019s, and a father who has died from it; and the relationship between the mother and the Down\u2019s daughter.  <\/p>\n<p>What Hudis\u2019 achieves in these poems is a profound empathy with both \u2018sides\u2019 of these relationships;  an empathy which is never sentimental.  Hudis avoids sentimentality by employing an iron grip on reality which, in turn, is couched in an exemplary detailing of the world.  In \u2018Rupture\u2019, the woman who \u2018stares\/ at the kettle, but can\u2019t retrieve its connection to water.\u2019, remembers a war-time bombing raid; \u2018\u2026 the moment when\/the glass sides shower out\/ and, all around her, tenements\/flower into a once in a lifetime\/spasm of absurd heat.\/  Of course, this is the writer\u2019s painterly description of the scene observed by the protagonist of the poem. But Hudis sidesteps that issue by so deftly pulling the reader into the woman\u2019s perspective.  <\/p>\n<p>In the title poem, the writer\u2019s father, \u2018in his final illness\u2019 watches a television programme about the explorer, Shackleton. \u2018But he locked eyes to the plot,\/ mapped it with strategies to push\/\/ beyond stalled ice-anchors and feet\/ whose nerves were shot.\u2019 This exquisite conceit not only mirrors the father\u2019s struggles with dementia.  It also mirrors our own need to engage through the screen that dementia places between us and those we love in order not only to understand but also realising a fuller humanity in ourselves.  Hudis\u2019 deft and moving writing shows us compelling paths towards that realisation.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIan Pople<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rosalind Hudis Terra Ignota (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 Susan Grindley New Reader (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 It is a clich\u00e9 of contemporary criticism to say that art treats the liminal, that which sits on the edge. Often the liminal is treated as just that; a thing which simply sits at the edge, representing a kind of boundary, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rosalind Hudis Terra Ignota (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 Susan Grindley New Reader (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 It is a clich\u00e9 of contemporary criticism to say that art treats the liminal, that which sits on the edge. Often the liminal is treated as just that; a thing which simply sits at the edge, representing a kind of boundary, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-19T12:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-23T17:14:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102\",\"name\":\"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-19T12:45:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-23T17:14:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Rosalind Hudis Terra Ignota (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 Susan Grindley New Reader (Rack Press) \u00a35.00 It is a clich\u00e9 of contemporary criticism to say that art treats the liminal, that which sits on the edge. Often the liminal is treated as just that; a thing which simply sits at the edge, representing a kind of boundary, [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2013-08-19T12:45:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-01-23T17:14:34+00:00","author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102","name":"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-19T12:45:08+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-23T17:14:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3102#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Pamphlets from Rosalind Hudis and Susan Grindley"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-O2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3102"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5550,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions\/5550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}