Combining pressing geopolitical urgency with a subtle and gentle
lyricism, as we have come to expect from Gerry Loose, his new book
ranges wide, broad and deep, to settle back home in the Scotland
re-inhabited by Sweeney the king, deranged and fleeing humanity, and a
lilting nine day walk from coast to coast across Scotland’s heartland.
With narratives from Nuremberg, which contrast city and individual
citizens with its long and terrible past, and then stories of an island
life – not as insular as might be imagined – in a Finland where anything
or nothing may happen, with or without a Luger pistol, this book has a
quiet insistence on personal experience.
A unique take on the naming of endangered species here could be seen as
a metaphor for what the ordinary people in these pages – and their
would-be leaders – might in turn become.
Expressive, formally inventive, Loose’s seventh full collection night
exposures lives right into its title: shining light into murky and
overlooked corners which some might wish to be kept in the dark.