Description
Book of Days by West Australian Poet Deanne Leber. Deanne’s first collection of poems, Book of Days, is an autobiographical journey into the ways we remember.
It is emotionally violent, humorous and playful, tracing narrative lines disrupted by mental illness.
Shortlisted for the 2006 WA Premier’s Book Awards.
Book of Days is Deanne Leber’s first collection of poetry and a very ambitious one. Described as ‘an autobiographical journey into the ways we remember’, it has a structure akin to music.
It is divided into three sections, each of thirty-one sub-sections. These in turn are collages of seemingly disconnected phrases which recur, with variations, as numerous leitmotifs that weave their way through the whole book, giving it a kind of subtle coherence akin to that of a small Wagnerian opera.
There is no obvious narrative to hold its ninety-three pages together, yet we can discern story and progression within the subtle recurrence and development of these phrases as they trace the emergence of memories and act out its fleeting yet persistent qualities.
There are no easy satisfactions for the lazy reader, but the book is immensely rewarding if given patient and attentive reading.
