A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.
This beautiful collection is both a joy to read and a challenge. Each poem stands as part of a carefully curated section. The sections combine to form a collection which demands to be read as a whole,
Her new book is her best, bravest, and most ambitious work to date, a remarkable and many-sided achievement that elevates her work, thematically and aesthetically, to a new level.
It seems to me that themes in this collection include medicine, reflecting Aideen’s work as a doctor; relationships, often bringing the sting of betrayal in their endings;
In Ecstatic, the personal and the political are intertwined in the most profound of senses. In this book, it is the political world we must live in, love in, make love in, grow old in, die in. It is in this world that we lose hope, over and over, only for hope to painfully re-emerge and insist we fight and dream again.
My review of this dazzling book has been delayed by my father’s recent death. But the greatest tribute I can give to Anne Casey is to say that reviewing her work has been one of my greatest consolations in the past several weeks. I find myself rereading the poems in this collection several times a day, like a devout person telling their prayer beads.