Pessimism for Beginners

by Sophie Hannah

Full of enchanting humor and intimacy, this inventive collection of poems is designed to engage and delight. Rhymed metrical forms are masterfully handled to produce highly amusing effects and traditional prose is manipulated in order to handle contemporary subjects. Moving yet lighthearted, these poems are a complicated brew that poetry lovers of every stripe will enjoy.

Genres: Poetry

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.

Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.

Reviews

[Stoic_quin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh god, this is to poetry as Bridget Jones Diary is to Jane Austen. There are no redeeming features to this twaddle, even at 64 pages it's about 64 too long. It's self-indulgent excrement, wallowing in its suburban smugness.

[Drew the duck]

DNF PAGE 17, wtf this is not poetry

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, sad, clever. A bittersweet collection of poems

[Lucas Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very quick read and reminds me of another time when reading a collection of light verse was a pleasant way to pass an evening. There is some delightful wordplay and real deft skill on display as the author uses meter and rhyme scheme to great affect. The pessimism is about relationships and the problems are a touch cliché.

I don't know. The title and cover drew me in, and it wasn't bad, but I wanted a lot more. It kept on hinting at some development as things progressed but stayed in the same mode through its brief 65 pages.

[Móheiður Hlíf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just adore everything about this poetry collection from cover to cover, it was a bit of a journey to land on five stars — at first it was, what is this? I very often seem to loath riming in modern poetry, then I was intrigued and laughing out loud and I imagine myself rereading this collection a lot its just that good! The bad reviews on goodreads made me laugh also — I admit making me condescending “oh you just don’t get it, you plebes” and that is also such a rewarding feeling (mostly proof that this book reveals the fallibility of us all lovers and haters) 🌝

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

These inventive verses of rhyme and meter describe
those exhausting moments (newborn keeping mom awake all night);
those infuriating moments (things that need to be said to blatantly unfaithful lovers); and
those defiant moments when you demonstrate your strength and your obviously superior wit.

If you have loved the writing of novelist Sophie Hannah, I think you will be delighted by her poetry.

[Adia Madjaric · Rating 1 out of 5]

The whole thing felt very trite. It's not the vibe.

[Hayleigh]

Not the greatest poetry I've ever read. Some of the poems were enjoyable but I couldn't relate to the large majority. I felt that often, due to these being rhyming poems, Hannah structured the lines oddly so the flow was lost and the rhyme felt wrong.

[Karellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry

Unusually for me these are poems that actually rhyme. Not my usual taste. But Sophie has a biting tongue and is rivetingly funny.

"Round Robin" is a brilliant satire on the annoyingly pretentious family newsletter. A cousin of mine used to send these to my mum and she treated them with utter disdain. Of course these days this type of bragging is all over Facebook instead. People competing over whose offspring got the best results and posting selfies of themselves in exotic locations. Assholes.

In "Deferred Gratification" the narrator is the long suffering wife who laments the list of her partners misdemeanours as she awaits her rescuer. If he ever comes.

"Discipline" bemoans the smoking ban and it's consequences in a mocking tone. "Cigarettes are spokes in the wheel of death. Snog more blokes if I have wholesome breath? " Sophie can be hilarious.

The title poem has particular resonance for this reader because it encapsulates an attitude that I've fostered over the years and has served me so well. Pessimism is the best defence against the cruelty of man.

This is acerbic, acid prose. It's a volume I'm sure I shall consult often to remind myself. A kindred spirit.

[Marty · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bittersweet collection of poetry - mostly bitter - but with a strand of dark humour running through it. Competent craftsmanship and some very good individual verses, but others I just found a bit too trite and some I thought had a clumsy rhythym. I suppose the book title is a giveaway but, for me, the persistent "poor little me" theme was a bit too repetitive in the end. Still it is said great poets are tortured souls. Maybe the fault is mine then... think I've failed this beginners course.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophie has a way of expressing mood and emotion in her poetry that I was able to understand and enjoy. I usually find poetry difficult to read yet this collection flowed well and I was able to distinguish structure and form. very easy to read

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some clever wordplay, but the repetitive subject matter - sour soliloquies on relationships gone wrong - grates after a while. A general atmosphere of bitterness and bargain-basement wordliness. Trite and forgettable stuff.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Erk. Awful. Avoid!

[Breanna]

Dnf

[Daniel Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully biting collection - snappy, crisp and very funny. Highly recommended.

[Jude Brigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection.