For every book that’s published one
exists — at least as good — which none 
have heard of, books which editors have spurned.
A Xanadu porlocked! Lolita burned!”

– from Kamal, Book One, by Zireaux
Canto V, Stanza 119

 

 

 

Praise for Zireaux’s recently published novel-in-verse, Res Publica:

“Very quirky, very literary, rather sophisticated, clever and funny — altogether enjoyable.”
– C.K. Stead

“A tour de force — almost perhaps, a tour d’addresse — after the manner of Lord George Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818) and more particularly, Don Juan (1819-24)….Zireaux presents us with an irreverent wisdom directed against conventional values and the politico-social system.”
– Alistair Paterson
Editor, Poetry New Zealand Magazine

“Some of Zireaux’s rhymes have a twinkling ingenuity not unworthy of Byron, W S Gilbert or Cole Porter: Mona [Lisa]/persona, tingle/commingle, muscular/crepuscular, Kerouac/Alamanac, greed/Mr. Sayeed. But what impresses most of all is his ability to sustain the flow over dozens of stanzas, sounding natural, indeed conversational. Nor is his work just an exercise in antiquarianism…Zireaux is thoroughly contemporary — with references to NASA satellite photographs, KFC, Viagra, Clinique cosmetics, Pamela Anderson’s breast implants, Martha Stewart’s imprisonment, Tim Tam biscuits, Gavin Menzies’ theory that the Chinese discovered New Zealand centuries before Europeans, and other current fads and foibles….[Zireaux] captivates with a singular charm.” 
– Iain Sharpe
Book reviewer for New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times

 

A Note about the Transcription of Zireaux’s Work:

The works published by Immortal Muse were recovered from a box of 198 small, red-covered, 100×160mm spiral notebooks and transcribed by the publishers.  The leaves of these notebooks, fifty per book, are neatly ruled in blue (21 rules per page) and Zireaux seems more or less frugal with space, only occasionally skipping lines. A typical Zireauxian stanza of just 12-14 lines, however, can end up scattered across 15 pages or so in a tangled wreckage of arrows and scribbled deletions. To further complicate one’s attempt to rescue these lines, whatever text survives — often circled or starred or just laying there quivering beyond the crash zone  – is further crippled by Zireaux’s difficult penmanship. And even then, even once a stanza is compiled and stretchered to safety, Zireaux rarely composed his verses chronologically, forcing one to decipher his unique numbering system in order to rehabilitate the stanza to its correct position within the larger context.  Two more books, Kamal, Book Two and Res Publica, Book Two are still in the process of transcription.