Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner
A poet takes the intimate form of the couplet to tell a tale of breaking apart and new passion in Maggie Millner's lyrical novel
Couplets: A Love Story is an adult novel-in-verse which details the demise of a relationship and the ups and downs of the new coupling that causes the break-up. Funny at times and a quick read, it’s an excellent place to start for those who haven’t read a novel-in-verse or want to read more poetry. It gets into the story quickly, but the plot is loose enough that it allows each poem to stand on its own too, and there are several individual gems of poems. The book leans heavily on its titular form, but not exclusively – in fact, when the author breaks away from couplets, the writing often becomes more intimate and vital. There’s something clever, though, in how the couplets reflect the narrator’s desperation to hold onto a closeness that eludes them.
It is a novel with a strong atmosphere – think queer sad-girl with all the angst, tenderness and melancholy that implies. For the most part, Couplets feels more dominated by grief than love. There’s a lot to resonate with here, but occasionally the writer delves so far into the specific that there’s a turn away from the kind of universal often couched within the specific in the most effective poetry. Cultural references and quotations of other writers ground the writing in a particular time and place, but perhaps too much so, as the best parts of Couplets have a timeless yet urgent quality.
Faber, 2 Mar