Fear Not by Stephen James Smith

Fear Not by Stephen James SmithPoet Stephen James Smith's sympathies lie with the addicted and the convicted, often responding to what he finds on life's margins. His sharp edged forceful language derives from his gifts as a performance poet and his fearlessness in looking into the eye of his subject matter. His poems get their charge, as well as their shape and substance, from his use of demotic rhythms, the vividness of his vernacular and his emotional directness

over the course of one blustery end-of-summer weekend

a writer gets on a flight for a speaking engagement in Reno

secrets must be uncovered

the book reveals the connections between different periods

spiritualists

terrifying

first lays eyes on Douglas MacDougal at a party in 1988

If you have even the slightest interest in Orwell or in the development of our culture

The quest is an obsession and the novel is a diabolical study of how a man becomes a fanatic

Arguably the greatest dystopian novel of all time and the most influential post-war work of fiction - which enriched the English language with words such as "Newspeak"

shed tears

an apartment block leaves its visitors with strange afflictions