Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
Jan Mark reviews The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
There is something hallucinatory, if not delirious, about this stylish, magical book, the sensation of tenuous recognition, of watching a dream slip away after waking. Then there is the fiddling - every chapter ends with appropriate sheet music for dance tunes - the prevalence of goats, any one of which might turn out to be a púka (member of the devil class, according to O'Brien), the ominous shadow of transience that always takes the young unawares, the air of intangible melancholy, all preserved from any suspicion of whimsy by the matter-of-fact voice of the author, her robust sense of fun, and the sheer energy of her writing.
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