Redbrick

A quiet triumph for Christopher Reid

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Written by Past Content

Hav­ing had one’s soul crushed whilst in the tyran­ni­cal employ of Costa Cof­fee, I still find it hard to com­pre­hend that a prize spon­sored by this behe­moth would choose to award a book of poetry that brims with soul and beauty. Not only award it, but award it against the odds, with Christo­pher Reid’s, A Scat­ter­ing the first time that the Costa prize has awarded Best Book to a piece of poetry in a decade.

Whilst crit­i­cally hailed as a work of poetry, few includ­ing the book­ies, would have believed in A Scat­ter­ing’s cross-over appeal and its sub­se­quent beat­ing of vastly more pop­u­lar nov­els. How­ever, any­one who has read even a few lines of this beau­ti­fully sparse land­scape of a man’s grief can imme­di­ately under­stand its decoration.

A Scat­ter­ing seems to me to be an ideal book of our time and sea­son, with win­ter the per­fect set­ting for this, at times, bar­ren and somber work. Inspired by the death of Reid’s wife, and pub­lished in a year con­tain­ing so much tragedy, it would have seemed friv­o­lous to award any other piece over this. Even Reid’s style reflects this white sea­son we have endured, with each word flut­ter­ing as snowflakes onto Reid’s can­vas. Reid draws sim­ple sketches of his for­mer life with his wife, and as one is engulfed slowly into this bewitch­ing text, you realise that it is not just a trib­ute to his wife, but a trib­ute to the for­mer life that he has lost. Reid’s great­est trib­ute to his wife is not just an award win­ning poetry set, but also to open up their lost love to all and invite them to expe­ri­ence it too. It is this shar­ing that sep­a­rates this from all other con­tenders to the prize’s crown this year.

The Costa Prize has done us a ser­vice by cel­e­brat­ing death and choos­ing a piece of work that can only bring us closer together as peo­ple. A Scat­ter­ing is poetry that all can appre­ci­ate, and only a few can­not love, giv­ing cred­i­bil­ity to a prize that had long lost its allure next to the titanic Booker Prize. This is a vic­tory for sen­ti­ment and sense, prov­ing that, for once, the cof­fee bean coun­ters have got the right idea.

Pick up a copy of A Scat­ter­ing from any good book­shop for £7.99 (RRP)

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This article was posted on February 6th, 2010 at 6:15 am.