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How Clive James knocked me to the Canvas

By July 24, 2015December 20th, 2015No Comments
“FOUR essays on Philip Larkin?”  I told Cruz, unbelieving.  “That seems excessive.”

“Yeah, but they’re pretty amazing,” Cruz said.

I was reading Clive James’ new “best of” collection of his work preceding “Cultural Amnesia.”   (It’s called “Cultural Cohesion”)  Cruz had gotten there first, sending me an email with a link saying “So this exists.”

But Larkin had only produced four major collections – did we need an essay for each one?  Reluctantly, I started in.

I had completed essay three by the time I stopped at a local book store and, dammit Clive, purchased “The Complete Poetry of Phillip Larkin.”

Down goes the cynic.