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Children’s Games by Geoffrey Lehmann & The House of Vitriol by Peter Rose

by
November 1990, no. 126

Children’s Games by Geoffrey Lehmann

Angus & Robertson, $12.99 pb, 64 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

The House of Vitriol by Peter Rose

Picador, $12.99 pb, 117 pp

Children’s Games by Geoffrey Lehmann & The House of Vitriol by Peter Rose

by
November 1990, no. 126

The ranking of books at the head of reviews often irritates me. So here let’s have it easy: age before beauty! Geoffrey Lehmanns’s collection is written in a style meditative at times and ranging in subject matter only very slightly; it is most frequently an intelligent description of a family after marriage breakdown. He delineates the daily routines, the moments of clarity and the emotional isolation family separation can bring.

The first poem is rhythmic and a delight. We get his warmth and humour straight off and the deep sense of the duty of parents, more intensified when there is only one:

I have held what I hoped would become the best minds of a generation
over the gutter outside an Italian coffee shop watching the small
warm urine splatter on the asphalt …

Philip Salom reviews 'Children’s Games' by Geoffrey Lehmann and 'The House of Vitriol' by Peter Rose

Children’s Games

by Geoffrey Lehmann

Angus & Robertson, $12.99 pb, 64 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

The House of Vitriol

by Peter Rose

Picador, $12.99 pb, 117 pp

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