Poetry, Fiction, or What? “The Long Take” by Robin Robertson

British author Robin Robertson has accomplished the highly unusual if not impossible: he’s written a poetry book that was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. That’s a prize given for novels.

Robertson’s The Long Take, or A Way to Lose More Slowly, didn’t win the prize (that went to Milkman by Anna Burns), but making the Man Booker short list is something of an achievement. And there’s more. The Long Takeis a poetry book, it’s a novel or something like a novel, and it unfolds like a noir movie. You’ve never read anything quite like this. 

Admittedly, I was attracted by the connection to the noir genre of fiction; in fact, from what I read about it and the Man Booker nomination, I thought it was a noir novel. Only when I started reading it did I realize I had a poetry book in my hands.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.