RaveThe Straits TimesHis poetry, which is stark and evocative, has the accessibility of the spoken word, leans towards the confessional, and has no shortage of gorgeous sentences. The lines often lend themselves well to quotation ... He has a keen ear for rhythm ... Vuong feels the world with his words, holding images in his mind and letting them fold into each other in startling new ways. On the page, as in real life, his voice is soft, wistful and direct ... Even at his most self-indulgent, Vuong is self-aware.
Anne Carson
RaveThe Straits Times (SING)... it bears the usual hallmarks of her writing: unquestionably erudite, but also lucid, sharp—and supremely funny ... a refreshing take, peppering its source material with digressions and allusions to Russian revolutionary Lenin, the Chernobyl disaster and even Jane Austen\'s novel Mansfield Park. In doing so, Carson commits a slew of infidelities, but gives Euripides\' play a quickness and a vitality that may have been lost in more doggedly faithful translations. While it does not flinch from the horror of Herakles\' actions, Carson\'s play, tone-wise, seems like the inverse of a tragedy. It is full of absurd rhymes and lines written in a language that is heightened, but also candid and colloquial ... If there is anyone capable of making well-written verse accessible in the age of Instagram, it is Carson.
Anne Enright
RaveThe Straits Times (SING)Told with a steely eye and deadpan humour, the narrative hops between past and present, weaving together accounts of O\'Dell\'s exploits in Hollywood, Dublin and West End, her descent into madness, and vignettes of Norah\'s own romantic life. Enright writes with a quiet lyricism, sans the Joycean meanderings of fellow Irish novelists such as Eimear McBride and Anna Burns. There is a maturity to her writing; an emotional astuteness rendered in prose so self-assured it has little need to draw attention to itself ... This is not a novel that should be read for its plot or its stylistic flourishes. Enright - steady, assured and faultless in her prose—may put off readers whose sensibilities tend towards the flashier stars of the book world. Readers who peer harder will appreciate the deceptive effortlessness of the writing— and perhaps wonder how much we should trust the teller of the tale.
