Novels in verse — reviewed by Stella

Back in the 1990s, working in a bookshop in Wellington, I came across a novel that intrigued me. It was written in verse, by an author that many now  known for his epic second novel, A Suitable Boy. Vikram Seth’s first novel was The Golden Gate. It was set in San Francisco in the 1980s and revolved around the lives of a group of successful 20-somethings in the burgeoning Silicon Valley. It’s not so much the content that has stuck with me, but the mathematical wonder of this novel. It is written in iambic tetrameter, and — as I have just now researched — composed of 590 Onegin stanzas. This formal structure took a little adjusting to, but I remember finding the rhythm of the novel within a few pages and noticing how the verse style adjusted my way of reading, making me read this novel in its very own way. That discovery of the novel in verse continues to fascinate, and when it works, it is brilliant. A more recent novel that comes to mind was the award-winning The Long Take by Robin Robertson. This is a startlingly affecting novel, an epic narrative poem about brutality and the search for kindness — a book that I will never stop recommending. I’m not sure what it is about a verse novel that appeals so much. I think it is the precision, those sharp ideas and carefully chosen words. It is the skill, the craft that poetry demands; particularly in the novel form where, like The Golden Gate, the rules are so important but the strict rhythm, once you, as the reader, are in synch you are unaware of — the content and form become seamless. Or The Long Take, where imagery meets landscape meets emotion so beautifully on the page with an intensity that surprises. And, for me, I think it is the joy of the text on the page. The space that alights around these stanzas, that says I am poetry (but not a prose poem) and can confound your expectations of the novel and what it can be. So, in the spirit of Poetry Day, I suggest expanding your horizons with a new poet or poetic form, or just giving poetry a try. It’s mind-bogglingly various. It can be serious, dramatic, emotional, confronting, and soothing, as well as amusing and ironic, and a combination of all of these; and then there are the many forms to discover. You never know where it might lead to in your reading explorations. Have a look at this week's Volume Focus for a selection of novels in verse on our shelves right now (maybe your verse-novel journey starts here!).