Max Porter

[John Bailey]

Has anyone read either of Max Porter's two very slim novels?
I happened upon his most recent, Lanny, last week and was left
physically shaken. It's a deeply polyphonic portrait of a small town
in rural England that's most often compared to Under Milk Wood, but I
found his writing very similar to Gravity's Rainbow in the sheer
luxuriance of its language.
It's a prose poem in the same way GR is, but also profoundly invested
in the non-human life of the planet, the detritus of humanity, the
impoverishment of community, the long now, our worst natures and best,
and it's also alternately laugh out loud funny and put-the-book-down
devastating.
Immediately afterwards I devoured his hit debut Grief is the Thing
with Feathers, but didn't find it so compelling (others find it much
moreso).
You can hear him read a bit and discuss Lanny here:
https://omny.fm/shows/sydney-writers-festival/max-porter-lanny