Love, ghosts and nose hair by Steven Herrick
UQP, 2017. ISBN 9780702228780
(Age: 12+) Highly recommended. Love, Sex, Death, Family, Humour. The
author of 22 books the first of which was published in the early
1990's, Herrick is well known for his performance poetry and verse
novels which touch on the ordinary in a most extraordinary way. Love,
ghosts and nose hair was first published in 1996 with loud
acclaim, and its reissue along with sequel A place like this,
exposes a new generation of readers to his words of wisdom,
encapsulated in fragments of sentences, while giving another life to
books which demand another outing.
Jack, plain Jack, narrates the story of his family: dad a
journalist, often away from home for long hours, sister, Desiree,
who has left school and works in a bookshop, Jack sixteen and hungry
for things to happen in his life: love (sex), dealing with his
mother's ghost still wondering through the house and his problem of
nose hair.
Through a series of sometimes terse, often funny poems, Jack tells
the reader about his family. In doing so, he tells more about
himself and his dreams, especially those concerning Annabel
Browning. Along the way we hear of their mother's death from cancer,
including one of the most poignant lines written about a family in
despair:
'They said the pills eased the pain - they only gave them to Mum'
followed by the image of Desiree in her bedroom examining her
breasts, and the ghost in a red evening dress who now visits their
house. Dad drinks each night and seven years on has a date which
ends with him telling the woman all about his wife who is still
there. Finally Jack takes Annabel out and they become lovers,
evincing a talk with his teacher, ending when Jack tells her he
prefers orange condoms. It is pithy comments like this that send a
message without being obvious. And another example that needs
airing: Desiree has no boyfriend 'because she has perfect eyesight
and all her brain cells'.
Some of the poems are written by Dad and a few by Desiree and
Annabel giving a different perspective through the tale, but all are
about Jack and how he sees himself. We know he will be alright when
he begins to see that he no longer needs the ghost in his life and
looks forward to what ever will happen next despite the work of the
vocational guidance officer.
A superbly written series of poems makes up this tale of Jack and
the ending of his childhood, and the sequel, A place like this,
takes us along on his journey after leaving school. I loved it first
time round and thoroughly enjoyed reading it again.
Fran Knight