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In N’ Chuillen‡inÕs work the imagination is not a refuge, but the true site of authority, where something is always beginning.Õ
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÑ Sean OÕBrien, The Sunday Times
ÔImages flex and crack with revelatory energy; crucially, however, they retain their translucence, electrifying . . . essential poetry.Õ
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÑ Sarah Crown, The Guardian
The Sun-fish, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, reinforces convictions that EilŽan N’ Chuillean‡inÕs transforming and transporting ways of seeing are like no other: silk scarves fly at her face Ôlike a car washÕ; thereÕs the Ôwhisper of a cashmere sleeveÕ, the nunsÕ Ôleathery kissÕ and a lighthouse Ôscraping the sea with its beamÕ.
By now familiar motifs Ð waves, tides, dividing lines, arches and doorways, journeys, a high tower and water, water everywhere, reprise previous effects and reach forward into new domains. Poems about men and the men in her family, a ÔwomanÕs story and the stories of womenÕ, elegies, homages and her familyÕs history, are developed through mist or the gap in a tale. Other poems tease out the tricks of light, at dawn or dusk, to open the lock of language.
The title sequence is both alluring and hypnotic. EilŽan N’ Chuillean‡inÕs poetry is one of the marvels of our time.
Published: 15 October 2009
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Reviews
It is N’ Chuillean‡inÕs skill in negotiating what are, essentially, different realms (which is always the business of metaphor, and metaphor is her beautifully handled, or played, instrument) that always catches and holds my attention, and it is a skill on plain and continuous view in this latest volume (a Poetry Book Society recommendation). . . ), she manages, as her best poems always manage, to embody mystery thatÕs been palpably encountered and, in a language of concrete presence, expressed.
Again and again, that is, she creates small, clear windows into a fully realized narrative world, . . . one charged all of a sudden by something weÕd have to call visionary. . . The dominant impression is of poems that are, like the sun-fish themselves, ÒSuddenly present, a visitationÓ Ð all composed in a tone that is equal parts knowledge, wisdom, at times a quiet ferocity, and something like warm yet detached compassion.
Like other N’ Chuillean‡in volumes, this one resembles, with no hint of piety, a book of prayers Ð secular and sacred at once, and curiously consoling in their depths of spiritual reserve.
ÒHow as a child she watched without moving,Ó she says in one poem. It is that patience married to that intensity, that utterly absorbed attention that drives these poems, poems that make Sun-Fish yet another indispensable N’ Chuillean‡in collection.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÑ Eamon Grennan, The Irish Times, 12 December 2009
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