Going for the Grail

This poetry book by Don Gutteridge is one of his finest collections of poems based on the theme of childhood. It is a joyous, candid, intimate observation of childhood memories written about going hunting with his father as a young boy and his silent gratitude at missing his mar, and he narrates stories of his father teaching him fishing and skating. He portrays a solid connection between identity and place that he traces in the language of wistfulness and familiarity. Gutteridge's gifts of using images and language with surgical precision are also much in evidence here.