eBook
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The Third Mandarin
Year
2019
Language
ENGLISH
Publication Information
Carcanet Press Ltd.
Summary
Frank Kuppner's The Third Mandarin is made of 501 quatrains divided into five "books." It collages an alternative Imperial China of drunk poets, grumpy sages, and sex-starved emperors. The poems riff on a variety of forms, from prophecies and love letters to drinking songs and graffiti. As a storyteller, Kuppner sticks faithfully to the path of least significance. His is a poetry of things that might happen in a minute or two, to people we don't really care about, for reasons too complicated to go into. His characters have a habit of turning up late to their own poems, as the poet rushes off to find them so that he can get started. Half riddling philosopher, half-drivelling idiot, Kuppner's speaker has the air of someone who has forgotten why they came into the room, 501 times.