Product Description
“In Embracing the Razor, Upton handles an impressive range of forms, from free verse to couplets and more intricate rhyming structures….The poems of grief and adjustment are poignant and often darkly humorous…..Upton’s work is compelling and will prove deservedly popular.”
− Aidan Coleman, The Australian
“Embracing the Razor displays many of the same skills and talents that have informed John Upton’s playwriting career….Emotion is hidden beneath precise description, but pushes itself to the fore through juxtaposed images and recollections, with the kind of volte-face and summary last line we will learn to expect from this poet.”
− Margaret Bradstock, Southerly
“Though the first section may be the most moving, the second is the most acute. Upton has a mordant eye for society’s contradictions….In the face of such skill, it’s difficult to remember that Embracing the Razor is actually Upton’s debut collection.”
− Geoff Page, Australian Book Review
