May Swim - Katie Donovan

By Turns Lyrical And Sardonic, This New Collection From Katie Donovan Is Characteristically Watery - Candid And Uncompromising In Its Refusal To Inhabit The Safer Reaches Of The Shore. Whether Writing About Her Hybrid Car, The Death Of Whales From Ingesting Plastic Waste, Abortion Now Being Legal In Ireland, Or The Increase In Demand For Sex Dolls, Donovan's Idiosyncratic Range Of Tone And Subject Continues To Enthral And Engage The Reader Thirty Years After Her Debut Collection, Watermelon Man, Arrived With Its 'distinguished And Open Language' And 'bold Statements Of Identity' (eavan Boland).in This Collection Themes Of Loss, Widowhood And Ageing Co-exist With Observations Of The Poet's Wild Garden And Its Inhabitants, Including A Mangy Fox She Helps To Survive. In Some Of These New Poems The Comforting Delusion Of Rescue Is Highlighted As A Flawed But Human Necessity, As In The Case Of Ishi, The Last Of His Tribe 'saved To Be A Living Exhibit In A Museum'.