Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By John Mateer, Giramondo Publishing, $19.95.
This new collection by award-winning poet Mateer is both sardonic and effusive as he describes the encounters of an alter-ego, João, as he travels across the globe, attending festivals and readings, meeting with friends, lovers, and often-famous fellow authors.
‘Uncertain in his identity, melancholy in disposition, troubled by dreams and memories, João is also an innocent, and given to moments of illumination and joy.’
In a narrative that’s new in Australian writing, he creates a sonnet sequence in the treatment of this ‘picaresque figure’.
The worldwide adventures of the poet as comic hero, one who, despite his disappointments, still believes in the power of literature to create a sense of belonging, and to invoke ‘the deep mandala of meeting and friendship’.
