LUKE KENNARD's first pamphlet in six years - Truffle Hound - kicked
off our experimental pamphlet series with a bang in 2018. More
resolutely prose than any of his previous books of poetry (although not
his novel) here Luke allows his childhood (imagined or otherwise) to
flood into the foreground, while his present (factual or fake news)
distorts and fractures as if his life were being directed by David Lynch
and Terry Gilliam and neither could agree whether horror or comedy
should dominate. Dogs, cigarettes, children and pills shouldn't really
be permitted to mix should they? Here they are a heady mixture indeed!
With that nonchalant way that Luke has of seeming to toss words as if
they were his hair, Truffle Hound piles neuroses on top of neuroses (not
necessarily Luke's) as it tackles subjects as wildly varying and yet
somehow connected as over the counter pain-killers, the domestic
struggles of humans on other planets, scathing criticism (both literary
and personal), transistor radios and shops - an inordinate amount of
shops. (The shops are where you can buy the pills and cigarettes and
food for the dogs.)
We found out today that in some colleges across the land, a certain kind
of poetic output is sometimes described as being Kennardian. We don't
know if Truffle Hound is Kennardian or not. (Perhaps it is
Neo-Kennardian?) But we are hoping that one day soon, something,
somewhere, of very little interest if needs be, will be referred to as
Vervian. We are hoping this a lot.
Luke Kennard is a poet and novelist. His books have been shortlisted for
the Forward Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the International Dylan
Thomas Prize. He lectures in the School of English at the University of
Birmingham.
