The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea: Poems [Paperback]

Mark Haddon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2006

From the phenomenally bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time comes Mark Haddon’s first collection of poems.

That Mark Haddon’s first book after The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a book of poetry may surprise his many fans; that it is also one of such virtuosity and range will not.

The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea reveals a poet of great versatility and formal talent. All the gifts so admired in Haddon’s prose are in strong evidence here – the humanity, the dark humour, and the uncanny ventriloquism – but Haddon is also a writer of considerable seriousness, lyric power, and surreal invention. This book will consolidate his reputation as one of the most imaginative writers in contemporary literature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the Curious Incident–like title, fans of Haddon's novel will find this collection's pleasures less immediate, but that doesn't mean they aren't here. Forlorn yet resolved in the face of an abrupt change of station, Haddon's speaker makes his way through a Britain that seems composed largely of hotels and rich people, as strange to him as the world was to his earlier protagonist: "above the confusion of forks// you will realize that is/ where your journey starts." Other poems rewrite horatian odes, imagine "Christmas Night 1930" and effect a "decimation" of John Buchan's novel The House of Four Winds. Technically accomplished and spikily humorous ("You did the Hippy-Hippy Shake/ I messed with Mr. In-Between"), the poems are marbled with scenes of same-sex love and desire, and ruminations on writing, fame and death. They will whet appetites for Haddon's fiction follow-up. (Apr.)
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Review

Praise for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“Gloriously eccentric and wonderfully intelligent.”
–The Boston Globe

“Moving. . . . Think of The Sound and the Fury crossed with The Catcher in the Rye and one of Oliver Sacks’s real-life stories.”
–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“This is an amazing novel. An amazing book.”
–The Dallas Morning News

Praise for Mark Haddon

“Mark Haddon is both clever and observant, and the effect is vastly affecting.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“A wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy.”
–Ian McEwan, author of Atonement and Saturday

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307275698
• ISBN-13: 978-0307275691
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 1, 2006

By 

Robert Meador (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea: Poems (Paperback)

I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time-- truly a wonderful, moving, and powerful novel. I also love poetry, so I was psyched to check out this book. Unfortuantely, I was deeply disappointed. The poems aren't especially bad, just not very good. They kind of meander along without saying too much that's very interesting and without offering any particular finesse with language. A couple are slightly smarmy self-referential poems about poetry and poets, which is usually not a good sign from a first book of poems. There were some occasional pleasures. I really liked this one called New Year's Day: "I walk on powdered/shell for three miles/to the spur's blunt head/where, each year,/something of the ocean/slows and falls/and turns into a yard of land,/and something of the emptiness/we spin through/silts and settles/so that we can walk/a little further/out into the fog." Not bad, but that's about as good as it gets, and there aren't many like that. It's really not bad, just kind of mediocre, which is disappointing after the remarkable job he did with his novel. If you're interested, I think the best thing to do is go to a bookstore and read a few of the poems before you buy.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As witty and charming as his novel, August 1, 2006

By 

C. Weber (Boston area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea: Poems (Paperback)

I bought this book because I loved his novel and because I love poetry. I was not dissappointed. The book is lovely to look at for starters. The poems made me smile and think, rather than wonder what the poet meant.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poems?, February 5, 2009

By 

Violet - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea: Poems (Paperback)

I fell in love with this author's book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, but this was disappointing. Haddon should stick with writing novels. It was good for him to try a different writing style, but his naturl talent lies in setting up an entire plotline and placing himself in characters' mindsets.