Publisher's Synopsis
This is Chris Wallace-Crabbe's second book of poems to be published internationally, and follows The Amorous Cannibal (1985), which widened a reputation already established in Australia. As the title suggests, irony for the poet is not merely a source of equivocation, but of passion, and in these poems, Chris Wallace-Crabbe employs the formality and playfulness of wit to make serious stabs at the unknowable. The collection is disconcertingly various, and ranges from wry ballads to streetwise mysticism. Wallace-Crabbe is remarkable in combining European, American, and Australian influences in a wholly distinctive voice.
