Crocodiles and obelisks are ancient symbols of empire. The poems in Jamie McKendrick's astonishing new collection sift the debris of power and range from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain to the Belgian Congo and to the Roman, the Austro-Hungarian and British empires. But 'crocodiles' and 'obelisks' are also terms used for newspaper obituaries-for tributes which either monumentalize the dead or shed false tears for them. Crocodiles & Obelisks is McKendrick's most individual work to date, and experiments with different ways of remembering, offering conclusions that are both cunning and drole.
