Anne French: Wild

Reviewed by PENNY BIEDER

Anne French has been somewhat burdened by labels attached to her work. "Feminist" and "controversial" spring to mind, and she is obviously happy to have a quote from the Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry on the dustjacket of her sixth collection of poems, Wild. "An effective commentator on sexual politics" it says, and I'd have to agree.

Her answer to her critics has been to win a list of awards and this year she has an opportunity to award a few herself. She is a judge for the 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

All the connotations and meanings of the word "wild" are explored here, from untamed land, to driving someone wild, to being besotted with someone to an almost obsessive degree. This striking, attractive collection speaks so truthfully and lyrically about landscapes, travelling, ancestors, relationships (their beginnings and endings), even the particular horror of holidays with their unrealised expectations, that one must admire both French's courage in revealing her vulnerability, and her endearing astonishment and fascination at everything.

Delicious irony raises an arched eyebrow on almost every page, but her cool, almost scientific dissection of subject matter is matched by a perfectly honed technique, making for a satisfying read. In Holiday in Cornwall she writes: "The clean / little stream flowing past you call a river. (I think / of the great braided rivers that drain the Alps to the sea,/ running pale in spring with snowmelt and glacier water. / Do we speak the same language?)".

Publisher: Auckland University Press

Price: $31.99

* Penny Bieder is a freelance writer