Martin Anderson: The Hoplite Journals XXX–LVIX
Published 15 May 2010
Paperback, 112pp, 8.5x5.5ins, £8.95
/ $16
ISBN 9781848611146
After many years in the Far East, Martin Anderson returned to the UK in 2001. The first volume of The Hoplite Journals(I–XXIX) was published by Shearsman Books in 2006. This penultimate volume evokes, like its predecessor, events and places largely in South East and South Asia as well as the West, and continues the earlier volume's exploration of allegiances and identities within the troubled context of mostly colonial and ex-colonial possessions.
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Read a review of this book by Ian Brinton at Eyewear
"The Hoplite Journals consist of sections (which) contain several prose poems . . . Anderson has the ability to write prose rich in meaning. I enjoyed the need to concentrate as I once enjoyed that requirement when I read Samuel Beckett or Peter Handke. The many recent novels I have read, including novels that are considered pre-eminent, are averaged by editors responding to the demands of the marketing department for instant understanding so that I am compelled to skip from page to page, not halted by anything unexpected in terms of beauty, originality or economy. When rereading passages of The Hoplite JournalsI did so for the sheer pleasure of reading. For that I am grateful". —Carolyn van Langenberg, Jacket
"The Hoplite Journals are impressive. The writing, very fine and sustained, stands alongside an array of writing done so superbly in the time of the Raj for the most part . . . [It] is redolent of the 'Fall' of empire and the tragic consequences that 'Fall' brought about in the ex-colonized [and] among the colonizers back home . . . There is a strong sense of [a] disintegrating, sparagmatic atmosphere . . . But a strong sense of human sympathy nonetheless—which is the important part. The compassion extends into many a meditation on the ultimate philosophical issues—which is a mark of the overall effort's depth . . . The ensemble makes me think of Marguerite Duras's The Lover, another story of a 'Fall', albeit a sister one, both in gender and politics". —Nathaniel Tarn
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