A Daily Glance
Lara Glenum's Hounds of No takes place in what seems like the afterlife with its commentary on wasted lives, destroyed bodies, terror, and surreal images, but really Glenum is talking about the present. In the appendix "Manifesto of the Anti-Real," the speaker tells us "Irony is not a device. It is a state of being" and also "When the door of fascism is opened, Realism will be seen lounging like a whore in its inner sanctum." Both comments provide nice introductions for the book, for it's one of the most ironic books that I've read in quite a while with its harsh glimpse of a society overwhelmed with terror fueled in part by its own prejudices and gender stereotypes. The book is unsettling, for it makes us search for solid ground beyond the irony, but I'm not sure solid ground is to be found. As Bottom says, "I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom." Throughout it all, Glenum controls the experience well and shows herself to be an interesting poet.
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