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The Art of Contraception
'Wild has a talent for writing about human oddness' -- Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley
Featuring 10 short stories and a novella, this literary debut is a quirky mix of fantasy and reality that is told with inimitable flair. In the story “Pica,” the deranged cravings of a pregnant woman lead to the accidental poisoning of her coworker, while in “Aquatic Life,” a man named Rob spends holidays in his bathroom and dreams about his underage love interest. Finally, the poignant and subtle novella Arrivals unfolds slowly, revealing a mother and daughter in opposite corners of the planet as both experience their own personal revelations.
Book of the Month, Buzz Magazine, October 2010: 'This is Susie Wild’s first collection of short stories. The title hints at a connection to contraception but some of the stories hold only loose connections, concentrating more on relationships and the obsessive behaviour of the often odd characters. Wild’s stories seem to have their core buried in the small things; those hidden behaviours we all try to keep secret – in the same way that Raymond Carver does. Veering from the purely observational into a strangely unnerving other-worldliness, these stories have at times a Lynchian (or even Twilight Zone) quality[...]The stories in this collection are all interesting and well constructed [...] the more you read the more you appreciate the tales.'
'Susie Wild's The Art of Contraception is a collection of eleven short stories and a novella, all linked by themes of sex, relationships and procreation. The watchword in this collection is variety, Wild approaching her subject from a diverse range of narrative voices, viewpoints and structures. Underpinning this literary ventriloquism, however, is the distinctive and unifying voice of Wild herself: amusingly quirky and darkly humorous, yet always ready to identify and sympathise with the loneliness and sense of loss that pervades the lives of her characters.[...]The Art of Contraception is well worth the read. If Parthian can continue to unearth writers of this calibre, then its new imprint will definitely be one to follow.' -- Harri Roberts p.145-146 Planet 201.
Featuring 10 short stories and a novella, this literary debut is a quirky mix of fantasy and reality that is told with inimitable flair. In the story “Pica,” the deranged cravings of a pregnant woman lead to the accidental poisoning of her coworker, while in “Aquatic Life,” a man named Rob spends holidays in his bathroom and dreams about his underage love interest. Finally, the poignant and subtle novella Arrivals unfolds slowly, revealing a mother and daughter in opposite corners of the planet as both experience their own personal revelations.
Book of the Month, Buzz Magazine, October 2010: 'This is Susie Wild’s first collection of short stories. The title hints at a connection to contraception but some of the stories hold only loose connections, concentrating more on relationships and the obsessive behaviour of the often odd characters. Wild’s stories seem to have their core buried in the small things; those hidden behaviours we all try to keep secret – in the same way that Raymond Carver does. Veering from the purely observational into a strangely unnerving other-worldliness, these stories have at times a Lynchian (or even Twilight Zone) quality[...]The stories in this collection are all interesting and well constructed [...] the more you read the more you appreciate the tales.'
'Susie Wild's The Art of Contraception is a collection of eleven short stories and a novella, all linked by themes of sex, relationships and procreation. The watchword in this collection is variety, Wild approaching her subject from a diverse range of narrative voices, viewpoints and structures. Underpinning this literary ventriloquism, however, is the distinctive and unifying voice of Wild herself: amusingly quirky and darkly humorous, yet always ready to identify and sympathise with the loneliness and sense of loss that pervades the lives of her characters.[...]The Art of Contraception is well worth the read. If Parthian can continue to unearth writers of this calibre, then its new imprint will definitely be one to follow.' -- Harri Roberts p.145-146 Planet 201.
300 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2010
About the author
Susie Wild
10 books23 followersSusie Wild is the author of the poetry collections Windfalls (Parthian, 2021) and Better Houses (Parthian, 2017), the short story collection The Art of Contraception (Parthian, 2010), listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals (Parthian, 2011).
Windfalls (Parthian, 2021):
‘“A chase of messages illuminates my screen/through the small hours.” So begins Susie Wild’s new collection, and among things that are fascinating here are the messages these powerful, beautifully crafted poems bring us. From an interaction with a violent taxi driver to the experiences of a mistreated mother to a “whirlwind love” for a husband, this collection understands the power of lyric poetry to bring us real and raucous life. The poems are endlessly engaging, individually and in the ability of the writer to create sequences and consider the emotional arc of a collection. I’m reminded how now, more than ever, there’s nothing like poetry to cut down the spaces between us, to leap across gaps, make a friend of a stranger. Just as, in 'The Starfish,' there’s a commitment to “slowly … fix the broken things,” so these poems show us, again and again, how something of the greatest importance can be crafted from the chaos that life does.’ – Jonathan Edwards
‘Her poems are beautiful, even when tackling difficult subjects, and arresting without feeling over-ornamented or inflated. Above all, they shine with authenticity - perhaps because she has a magpie’s appetite for glimpsed moments...’ – Jenny White, The Western Mail
'Wild comes across as the poetic equivalent of Jean Rhys: wry, arch, a little world-weary but, unlike Rhys, with a sparkling glint of humour... A very affecting collection of poems indeed.' – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine
Better Houses (Parthian, 2017):
'These poems are spells whose words bewitch the ordinary and transform the objects and routines of our human world with their word-magic.' – Gillian Clarke
'The world shifts and transforms itself in these subtly disconcerting poems: words into bees, surgical stitches into mascaraed eyelashes, a fossil oyster into a lover's toenails. The effect can be darkly sinister or exuberantly witty, but it's always new and refreshing. This is an exciting and assured poetic debut.' – Matthew Francis
‘Susie Wild writes with poise and precision about the places we inhabit, casting a benevolent spell over her reader.’ – Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
'The voice is concentrated, urgent; the material is often tender, even domestic. There is no contradiction in this. The poems come from raw edges of the spaces between people, and a sense of how provisional the tender things can be.' – Philip Gross
'Poems carefully built to be inhabited.' – Cynan Jones
'Susie Wild’s Better Houses announces a new, highly distinctive and exciting poetic voice. [...] The author’s balance between opening the door for the reader, and then hitting them with the poem’s highly original approach to language and a slightly slant way of looking at the world, make these poems highly entertaining and rewarding. [...] an accomplished and auspicious debut...' – Jonathan Edwards, Ink Sweat & Tears
'reels gorgeously from a restaurant to the seashore to the night sky [...] an unfinished journey through the experiences and signs that tell us we're home.' – Elizabeth Edwards, Planet International
'exuberant and smart [...] Half-remembered, half-invented, but wholly charismatic.' – Sophie Baggott, Wale
Windfalls (Parthian, 2021):
‘“A chase of messages illuminates my screen/through the small hours.” So begins Susie Wild’s new collection, and among things that are fascinating here are the messages these powerful, beautifully crafted poems bring us. From an interaction with a violent taxi driver to the experiences of a mistreated mother to a “whirlwind love” for a husband, this collection understands the power of lyric poetry to bring us real and raucous life. The poems are endlessly engaging, individually and in the ability of the writer to create sequences and consider the emotional arc of a collection. I’m reminded how now, more than ever, there’s nothing like poetry to cut down the spaces between us, to leap across gaps, make a friend of a stranger. Just as, in 'The Starfish,' there’s a commitment to “slowly … fix the broken things,” so these poems show us, again and again, how something of the greatest importance can be crafted from the chaos that life does.’ – Jonathan Edwards
‘Her poems are beautiful, even when tackling difficult subjects, and arresting without feeling over-ornamented or inflated. Above all, they shine with authenticity - perhaps because she has a magpie’s appetite for glimpsed moments...’ – Jenny White, The Western Mail
'Wild comes across as the poetic equivalent of Jean Rhys: wry, arch, a little world-weary but, unlike Rhys, with a sparkling glint of humour... A very affecting collection of poems indeed.' – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine
Better Houses (Parthian, 2017):
'These poems are spells whose words bewitch the ordinary and transform the objects and routines of our human world with their word-magic.' – Gillian Clarke
'The world shifts and transforms itself in these subtly disconcerting poems: words into bees, surgical stitches into mascaraed eyelashes, a fossil oyster into a lover's toenails. The effect can be darkly sinister or exuberantly witty, but it's always new and refreshing. This is an exciting and assured poetic debut.' – Matthew Francis
‘Susie Wild writes with poise and precision about the places we inhabit, casting a benevolent spell over her reader.’ – Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
'The voice is concentrated, urgent; the material is often tender, even domestic. There is no contradiction in this. The poems come from raw edges of the spaces between people, and a sense of how provisional the tender things can be.' – Philip Gross
'Poems carefully built to be inhabited.' – Cynan Jones
'Susie Wild’s Better Houses announces a new, highly distinctive and exciting poetic voice. [...] The author’s balance between opening the door for the reader, and then hitting them with the poem’s highly original approach to language and a slightly slant way of looking at the world, make these poems highly entertaining and rewarding. [...] an accomplished and auspicious debut...' – Jonathan Edwards, Ink Sweat & Tears
'reels gorgeously from a restaurant to the seashore to the night sky [...] an unfinished journey through the experiences and signs that tell us we're home.' – Elizabeth Edwards, Planet International
'exuberant and smart [...] Half-remembered, half-invented, but wholly charismatic.' – Sophie Baggott, Wale
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September 25, 2011
A really nice collection of stories, some set in Swansea. This was part of Parthian's Bright Young Things initiative and I enjoyed reading the stories on my daily commute. Susie Wild is working on a novel at the moment and I'm lookign forward to seeing the results.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review