Gabrielle Everall
Success Print
For John Kinsella – Cambridge Fellow and the world’s leading luminary light in regards to all things poetic – to dub fellow West Australian Gabrielle Everall’s debut verse novel one of the most important poetic narratives to have appeared in English anywhere, at any time… well, it’s enough said really. But for the sake of an audience perhaps largely unfamiliar with this slightly eccentric poet and her obsession with obsession, Dona Juanita and the love of boys is everything Kinsella says it is, and more. Dark, dramatic, modern, epic and shifting on the edge of being literary psychotic, Everall’s debut is a must read, plain and simple.
Brilliant is quite possibly the only word to use when describing the intensity of this text. Everall composes a concerto of sing-song poems which progressively dive deeper into a dark, dirty land of desire. Here, whim, want and wisdom whirl up to surround the unlikely heroine, the wanton wannabe Dona Juanita, in a contorted costuming of crushes gone awry. Literary theory is lavishly laced with pop cult sensibilities, forging a self-awareness throughout Everall’s work which is hypnotic, seductive and perversely appealing to read. Confessional, yes…but without intentionality.
In this narrative title piece, Dona Juanita, this modern mythic maiden’s demented desire is made clear with brutal accuracy. She eats out their eyes / with a spoon / gourmet meals are / supposed to be small Everall coos, instantly mocking the menace of men. Gender struggles are threaded throughout, femininity thwarted only by desire’s debilitation. Nowhere is this more present than in Stink, where perfume is used to add allure, to lure, hoping to act as a defence / against rape, reference then made to Baudelaire’s Flowers Of Evil and the cancerous nature of a consumerist culture.
Beg, borrow or simply buy a copy of this book. Its limited first print of 300 is sure to sell out fast, making a first edition copy a wise investment. Not only because of Kinsella’s endorsement, but because Everall writes of a territory others tend to Bridget Jones, and does so with ferocious honesty. Such bravery is commendable, courageous and, as noted earlier, simply brilliant.
