Book Review Vertigo and Ghost by Fiona Benson

Title:      Vertigo and Ghost

Publisher: Cape

Author:  Fiona Benson                                                         

First published:  2019

Genre:   Poetry 

Awards Shortlisted: T S Eliot Prize 2019

Content        The book has two halves. Part 1 contains poems about Zeus. He’s presented as a serial rapist. The poems cover the arc of his life. There are poems about the various rape encounters he’s had with a variety of goddesses. There are poems about his later imprisonment and execution. Although the poems depict classical Greek characters, Benson sets these encounters in a modern day setting.

                    The second half of the collection contain personal poems. These are poems depicting nature, specifically where she lives with husband and children in the west country. Two daughters. She writes about the experience of motherhood and the anxieties associated with bringing up young children. There is danger, threat, self-sacrificial and love.

Comment     Setting the first part of the collection in classical Greek mythology tmay be a way of creating distance between readers and the experiences she depicts. Descriptions are often violent and disturbing. Shocking.

                    The whole collection begins with a personal autobiographical poem about being a teenager. I think it’s brilliant. It prepares us for the second half of the collection. I really thought there were some great poems here.

Recommendation           4/5

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