Haddon's PG Poems

The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea is Mark Haddon's follow-up to his zanily popular Curious Incident of the something in the some time or another. This is another multi-word title that will certainly be forgotten and or ridiculed among his readership. This slim 60 page book is not a novel, however. Figuring I would like anything that Haddon would produce in the future, from reading his autistic sleuth story, I made the purchase. I was 'curious' to read of Haddon's poetic side.

I was unimpressed at most of the pages that I flipped about, till I landed on "This Poem is Certificate 18". I laughed. It's sort of a ironic poetic mini-manifesto which describes what constitutes suitable reading material, i.e. for those under 18. (Don't ask me what a ironic-poetic-mini-manifesto is... it just sounds right.) To be precise, the inside flap describes the poem as an example of a "wry postmodern shenanigan" what ever the heck that means. Definitely written for a "mature" audience and not for the little 'uns - unless you want to explain what happens in a McDonald's restaurant en route to the airport, or what the baby-sitter does on the kiln fired tiles of her employer's bathroom. Otherwise, I would pass up on this book and stick with the maudlin memories you had when you read his doggie mystery.