The Radio
Reflections on family, memory, and digital life
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:9th Nov '17
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In The Radio, Leontia Flynn explores childhood, family, and the impact of digital technology through poignant poetry, highlighting personal and collective experiences.
In The Radio, Leontia Flynn delves into the complexities of childhood and family life through a series of poignant poems. The collection opens with a heartfelt sequence reflecting on her father's battle with Alzheimer's disease, intertwining themes of care and loss. As the narrative unfolds, Flynn imagines her mother's experiences during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, capturing the nuanced emotions of a tumultuous time. Through her exploration, she contrasts the intimate nature of family moments with the overwhelming influence of modern digital technologies, prompting readers to consider the impact of these changes on personal connections.
The poems in The Radio are not only a reflection of personal history but also engage with broader literary traditions. Flynn draws inspiration from various voices, including elements of verse drama and dialogues reminiscent of Sylvia Plath's 'Three Women'. This interplay of influences enriches her work, making the act of writing a form of communication that begins with deep interior listening. The poems resonate with the sounds and forms of personal meaning, inviting the audience to reflect on their own experiences.
Throughout The Radio, Flynn masterfully balances fragility and humor, offering observant insights into the human condition. Her ability to articulate the pressures of modern life, alongside the quieter struggles of the past, showcases her originality and importance in contemporary poetry. This collection is a testament to her skill and a significant contribution to the literary landscape.
Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, The Radio is an outstanding book from a poet who is not only one of the best writers of her generation but who seems, more and more, to be the voice of that generation. -- John McAuliffe * Irish Times *
Leontia Flynn’s The Radio sees one of Northern Ireland’s most assured voices continue her engagement with the alchemy of form in an effortlessly contemporary manner, indeed driving the thought thrillingly through longer stanza forms, including a brilliant elegy for Heaney. Theexposure of family, and its intimate matrix of the generations, to the equal threats of history and human frailty is played out in work with an intense sense of place and moment. -- W.N. Herbert, chair of the judges of the 2017 Eliot Prize
Anybody with an interest in poetry should be reading Leontia Flynn. Those with no interest should be reading her too: she has what it takes to overcome resistance. All mothers – especially new mothers – should read her. Her understanding of what it is to be a woman is one of the things (by no means the only thing) that makes this collection so powerful. Her thinking is complicated but never arrogantly inaccessible. I was bowled over by this, her fourth collection. I kept returning to poems for the sheer pleasure of them – no slog involved. -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *
The Radio sparkles with 21st-century chutzpah, sometimes offset by maternal angst. -- Carol Rumens * Guardian *
Funny, touching, satirical, breathtaking and dazzling by turns, packed full of exceptional poems. -- Damian Smythe * Belfast Morning Telegraph *
Flynn breathes the new life of an entirely contemporary voice into a seemingly traditional stanzaic structure. -- Paul Batchelor * New Statesman *
- Short-listed for T S Eliot Prize 2018 (UK)
ISBN: 9781787330085
Dimensions: 200mm x 130mm x 5mm
Weight: 101g
80 pages