Speech with Humans - new Baxter book with US poet

Speech with Humans - Glen Baxter, Clark Coolidge (Arc Publications, £9.99)

It's only taken 26 years for this book to come out, so good things clearly come to those who wait. Or eventually get around to it. Surrealist artist, poet and cartoonist Glen Baxter first met acclaimed US poet Clark Coolidge in 1974, while out in New York. A loose collaboration which began around 1982 has now finally brought the two gentlemen into print together, and fans of both will be glad they finally managed it.

It's a slim, 70-page volume which works best when you simply dip in and sample a page or two. Trying to read it as any kind of narrative doesn't really work, as Coolidge's text flits around playfully, at times suggesting some kind of story or cohesive structure, while at others reading as if lines have been kidnapped from unconnected prose pieces and dropped in at random.

The Colonel's cheerful illustrations often cover familiar territory - Wild West references, the Forties, shapes and formulae - but every few pages you get a surprise with something that makes you stop and think again. At times it's hard to see what connects the drawings and the text, while at others there's a subtlety that's fun and disorientating at the same time.

The great thing with this kind of material is that you can read what you like into it, or just take it at face value: absurdist, unsettling, sometimes perceptive, funny, thought-provoking and often just plain daft.

Thorougly recommended for deconstructionalists everywhere. Missed the snoods, though.