Sean Barrs 's Reviews > The Somnambulist Cookbook

This is a great collection of poetry that makes fun of life, poking at it and laughing at some of its glaring stupidity.

In these pages is a sense of rebellious adulthood, a voice that is not quite at terms with where it has reached. And this voice spoke to me because this voice understood that although we may continue to age, we still ultimately feel the same inside. We get older, but we are still a culmination of earlier versions of ourselves. We grow as people but never change completely. Younger versions always speak to us even though they are lost. They remind us of where life could have gone and how different it may have been.

There is a strong sense of drifting, through time and memory to come to terms with the present. And it’s a present that doesn’t cease laughing. Loss dominates a lot of the poems, but it’s not a defeating loss. It’s more about accepting loss, coming to terms with it, and moving forward and making sense of its place in the world and our lives. Whether that be loss of a relationship, one’s youthful hope or a moment in time witnessed through the window of a train. Understanding loss is understanding life.

And it's all a true pleasure to read. Creative and deliberate, lyrical and playful, The Somnambulist Cookbook explores exactly what it is to be human in a world that seems to have forgotten.

I recommend it highly!

The book can be purchased directly from Salt here.