Marika's Cooking
William Fairbrother
Virtualitch, 2002

Marika thinks there is a devil and she adds more garlic. She doesn't wish to poison her husband Adolpho you know. His mother keeps calling. Marika opts against using Kiwi to make him confess. She really doesn't want him to confess. Adolpho has learned not to grumble about Marika's cooking. Of course the octopus he orders in restaurants really doesn't look like what Marika put into the pasta. She said it was octopus, he called it rat's tails. Couldn't be, could it?

At last Adolpho is home all day, everyday and Marika thinks it wonderful despite the fact that she only sees him for meals. It is a wonderful vacation for Marika to know exactly where he is. Her mother comes to help with the party Marika plans. Adolpho leads Marika in the first dance of the evening. Pelle, Tito and the chicken is an amusing portion. And, so it goes on to the last lines of the poem.

Writer Fairbrother has taken an interesting concept, put it to use and in Marika's Cooking has produced a credible work in his 'novel in a poem.' I like it. The tale is told in the poetry as Marika cooks her way into and out of the upsets of life she faces. When approached to review a poem of thousands of lines I had wondered how or even if the writer might carry out the narrative in such fashion and am pleased to find that he has done a more than adequate job.

Marika's Cooking is a fresh and novel method to story telling, or perhaps Fairbrother seeks to return us to a technique used by the masters of old. Either way the book is an easy read from start to finish. The reader is caught up in the tale from the opening as Marika gets out that garlic to use. The reader hardly has time to consider the garlic before being sent on a fast paced romp through the poem right on to the last stanza. The various characters waft in and out of the verse composition, the scents of the cooking are nearly tangible and on the whole Marika's Cooking is a very satisfying read.

Enjoyable read.