The Jaguar

Reviews

'A confronting and heartfelt elegy for her father, bookended by the devastating end of his life but not forgoing the vivid living of the rest of it - capturing his humanity, his illness and her loss with clarity and love.' 'A key figure in contemporary Australian poetry.' 'A searingly honest exploration of her father's battle with Parkinson's disease ... Her poems are rich, beautiful and autobiographical. Each one is a story, a world within a world.' 'Holland-Batt uses form and language purposefully, with the deftness and confidence of a poet who knows exactly what she is doing.' 'Few poets can achieve this level of transformation, allowing their images to move with argumentative force ... The poems about her father are among some of the most powerful written on this subject and many readers will be profoundly affected by them. Holland-Batt has produced a powerful and sustained work, a book that I will keep returning to for its rich haul of images, its intensity of emotion, the pleasure of its finely wrought music and its elegant craft.' 'Lyrical and beautiful. [These poems] are intelligent, fierce and fearless.' Expand reviews