Cressida Connolly
Blake Morrison's And When Did You Last See Your Father? (Granta, £1499) is partly a record of his own childhood and youth, partly an agonisingly unsparing account of
his father's final illness and death. Not the most festive little volume, perhaps, but eas- ily the best book of 1993. I was incapable of tearing myself away from it, leaving disgruntled weekend visitors to self- cater while I feigned illness in order to be allowed to read without interruption. As well as being extremely moving — and courageous — this book is a marvellous portrait of a singular, obstinate and gener- ous man, who is larger than most fictional creations, It also has passages of real hilarity.
It was a disappointing year for fiction, but a good one for poetry. New collections from Carol Ann Duffy and John Heath Stubbs were welcome. Paul Muldoon's Shining Brow (Faber, £5.99), a verse libret- to about Frank Lloyd Wright, sounds awful, but in fact breaks new poetic ground and is wonderfully dramatic too. Finally, A Snail in His Prime (Harvill, £7.99) is a per- fect introduction to the quirky genius of Paul Durcan. It contains some fine new poems, as well as an excellent selection of his old ones. Poetry is apparently the biggest growth area in publishing, and about time too. Durcan's work — from political and religious satire to wistful love lyric — is a reminder that everything worth saying can be said better in a poem than in any other way.
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