Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1993. Taschenbuch,
103 S. ; Ill.
Description
A spoof in verse of mystery fiction features a different style of poetry for every chapter.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jppoetryreader
There's poetry that aims as art and poetry that is simply entertainment. Send Bygraves by Martha Grimes, a mystery author, falls between the two, leaning more toward entertainment. I would never have heard of this book, let alone picked it up and read it, if I hadn't been systematically going
The title character, Bygraves, is a detective that no one has ever gotten a good look at but is none-the-less ubiquitious.
From the first poems "At the Manor House (1)"
And his turning up was not mere accident
In family snaps of hatchet-faced old hats,
All looking ghastly grey and prison-bent;
Nor there in tiers of black-robed graduates
Does he seem out of place, funereally
Indistinguishable from the rest.
He joined our summer outings by the sea
The unidentified and unknown guest;
Wedding days, church socials, birthdays--he
attended all, unasked.
Under the pressure of being observed by someone who remains a phantom (the detective sometimes conflated with the murdered one) everyone becomes paranoid because nearly everyone is guilty of something and if they're not, then they suspect the shadowy detective is an assassin. The book introduces us to a town's cast of characters and significant places with names like Madrigal, Whipsnade, Snively, Dredcrumble Moor, and Cobweb Tearooms. Along the way, Grimes pokes fun at various mystery conventions and stock characters and plays with poetic forms. The book's middle section starts with several poems titled "Murderacrostic," "Murderconcrete," Murderanaphora,"Murdersonnet," "Murderpantoum." And near the end, there's a "Bygraves Sestina." Just the idea of a "Murdersonnet" tickles me. Most of these she pulls off wonderfully, the clunkiest being the pantoum (though its last line makes a very clever turn via altered punctuation). One of my favorite poems in the book is "Murderacrostic" that ends:
The spectre follows kings and fools;
The spectre comes to all in time.
The spectre! How you dread to see
The spectre here, and in dark pools
The spectre mirrored endlessly.
This book never becomes any one thing. I wouldn't classify it as light verse, though many aspects of it are humorous. And it isn't strictly narrative, though the second poem assigns Bygraves to solve a crime and near the end we have more than one ending scenario. It's partly a meditation on guilt, our uneasy relationship to mysteries of all kinds, and petty animosities between people.
I've read Send Bygraves twice now and was charmed both times. It's a quick, delightful read even for people like myself who have never taken to mystery fiction and who normally read poetry that leans more strongly on the art end of the scale.
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through the American poetry section (811) of my local library. To judge a book, I would usually read a few poems randomly. Very few books pull me into taking the time for a full read but this one did and I was thoroughly charmed. I was delighted when I found it at another library's book sale so that it now sits on my bookshelf to be shared with others or reread whenever I'm in the mood for a bit of humor mixed with mystery and psychology.The title character, Bygraves, is a detective that no one has ever gotten a good look at but is none-the-less ubiquitious.
From the first poems "At the Manor House (1)"
And his turning up was not mere accident
In family snaps of hatchet-faced old hats,
All looking ghastly grey and prison-bent;
Nor there in tiers of black-robed graduates
Does he seem out of place, funereally
Indistinguishable from the rest.
He joined our summer outings by the sea
The unidentified and unknown guest;
Wedding days, church socials, birthdays--he
attended all, unasked.
Under the pressure of being observed by someone who remains a phantom (the detective sometimes conflated with the murdered one) everyone becomes paranoid because nearly everyone is guilty of something and if they're not, then they suspect the shadowy detective is an assassin. The book introduces us to a town's cast of characters and significant places with names like Madrigal, Whipsnade, Snively, Dredcrumble Moor, and Cobweb Tearooms. Along the way, Grimes pokes fun at various mystery conventions and stock characters and plays with poetic forms. The book's middle section starts with several poems titled "Murderacrostic," "Murderconcrete," Murderanaphora,"Murdersonnet," "Murderpantoum." And near the end, there's a "Bygraves Sestina." Just the idea of a "Murdersonnet" tickles me. Most of these she pulls off wonderfully, the clunkiest being the pantoum (though its last line makes a very clever turn via altered punctuation). One of my favorite poems in the book is "Murderacrostic" that ends:
The spectre follows kings and fools;
The spectre comes to all in time.
The spectre! How you dread to see
The spectre here, and in dark pools
The spectre mirrored endlessly.
This book never becomes any one thing. I wouldn't classify it as light verse, though many aspects of it are humorous. And it isn't strictly narrative, though the second poem assigns Bygraves to solve a crime and near the end we have more than one ending scenario. It's partly a meditation on guilt, our uneasy relationship to mysteries of all kinds, and petty animosities between people.
I've read Send Bygraves twice now and was charmed both times. It's a quick, delightful read even for people like myself who have never taken to mystery fiction and who normally read poetry that leans more strongly on the art end of the scale.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1989 (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York)
Physical description
103 p.; 19 cm
ISBN
3499132060 / 9783499132063