Republic of the Husband

Lucy Tunstalls striking debut collection features a cast of characters ranging from Paul Muldoon and Marianne Moore to Aunt Jane, who fell in love in 1956, or thereabouts, and Cousin Gillian, who keeps the familys long-case clock in her caravan (Some people do not think this is an appropriate arrangement). Using a variety of registers and forms, including dramatic monologue, lyric, collage and found text, Tunstall explores poetrys negotiations of truthfulness and theatricality, accuracy and artifice. Perceptive and humorous, but never sentimental, she reaches into the deep emotions that lie beneath inhibition and the conventions that govern ordinary and extraordinary lives.