O Positive

<i>O Positive</i> is the long-awaited debut collection of poetry from Joe Dunthorne and it has all the appeal of his widely acclaimed fiction. <br><br>Adopting a sunny genial tone Dunthorne lures the reader to darker places exploring death and dread failure and regret - the 'lounge of our suffering'. Often he catches us off-guard: a 'whiplash' effect where poems shift from laughter to slaughter in a moment. Impertinent owls an immersive theatre troupe ancient men from the Great War and idiot balloonists - such characters dramatise our human fancies and foibles joining the protagonist in scenarios both humorously bizarre and all-too-familiar. These performances serve to probe and unpeel the layers of the self - all the way down to the raw.