He Used Thought as a Wife: An Anthology of Poems & Conversations (From Inside)

Product Information

Juniper designed the beautiful Megadate printed script, and then his playing cards (which also have conversations with her on some of them) and in this book her role as TK's foil is thrust even further into the spotlight (although how much (if any) of it is real is for the reader to guess).

Tim Key New Book — Tim Key

Tim Key has] always been at a gloriously odd angle to life as we know it. Now that life itself is at an ingloriously odd angle to life as we knew it, his time has come.” The Times **** If you are in Australia or New Zealand (DVD Region 4), note that almost all DVDs distributed in the UK by the BBC and 2entertain are encoded for both Region 2 and Region 4. The UK and Australasia are in the same Blu-ray region (B). At his most playfully self-aggrandising, Key imagines himself as a modern-daySamuel Pepys only better (‘He’s a yawnfest, Em. He makes the Fire Of London sound as boring as sin, to be fair on him’). These poems form a true collection, some stand alone, others form an arc of running gags. If you are a fan of Tim Key already, you will be familiar with his abrasive, and very funny, poems. What stands out about this book is the conversations, beautifully type-faced, between Key and various friends and family members he keeps in touch with from a safe distance. Each character has its own voice, each of them uniquely funny - a testament to the strength of the writing. My American experience of early COVID was slightly different--more haphazard and unstructured, more politically frustrating (Bohnson's got nothing on Drump)--but the world is small enough and the pandemic so global, that despite the geographical gulf, Key's rendering of living alone, frozen in time while the world spiraled out of control, resonated.Anyone familiar with Key’s passive-aggressive but vulnerable, needy, beer-swigging onstage persona will doubtless be able to conjure a picture of the poet-comic gone to seed. An over-indulging artist imprisoned in his garret, he clung to sanity by scribbling his abrupt, off-beat verse on to Post-it notes and making testy phone calls to friends and family. The typesetting and layout is genuinely very attractive. This is Emily Juniper's contribution - the person whom Tim converses most with in the book. As this book seems like a continuation of the same world that TK created for Megadate, and then his Poetical Playing Cards this is appropriate. At his most self-consciously pompous, Key fancies himself a latter-day Samuel Pepys, chronicling the modern bubonic plague for posterity. With some justification, even as his febrile imagination conjures bleak erotica, featuring an out-of-his-depth, depressed Boris Johnson, “Bohnson”, as he sinks further into his own hellish quagmire. It's SO good?? Wtf Tim, your brain is a wonder and I'm in awe. The book is very funny, joyful, perfectly odd, sad, relatable and... cozy? I felt snuggled up reading this book. It took care of me.

He Used Thought as a Wife, by Tim Key, review: pithily funny

It's semi-autobiographical meaning it's not entirely clear what he's invented with his own imagination (I mean, did he have a cow on his balcony? Was there even a mouse?!) but I feel like this just highlights the chaos of the pandemic and the stuff we all had to do to cope. Just as the pattern becomes predictable the book takes an interesting meta-turn that is enjoyable, and self aware. Is comedy more important than kindness? Is meanness towards those closest to you necessary for quality humour? Is a poem about a Jacob Reece Mogg-like character masturbating a cat really that funny? I think the answer to each of those questions is no.

His admittedly unreliable recollections are a delight, despite, or possibly because of, the undertow of despair that he’s trying not to confront. Key’s decline is charted with a dry and ever-present wit, which frequently erupts into a bluntly funny line that elicits a hard, inappropriate laugh. Alone in this intersection of spoken waffle and poetry, there’s nothing else like Tim’s writing and it’s in top form here. Moreso than the books 2021 Sequel ‘Mulberry’ that loses much of this books charm by changing setting to outdoors. Tim’s Flat, complete with floor plan provided, does claustrophobia like a fart in a lift. Well humoured, but dense and suffocating. All the while, Key’s intensifying mental degradation belies the volume’s deceptive density and rigorous chronological timeline of major pandemic moments. Despite alighting on obvious touchstones such as the NHS clapping, Johnson’s brush with Covid, banana bread and Dominic “Cumdawg” Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle, it is the specific oddity of Key’s existence that best captures the general experience of lonely, inward-looking, disconnected life. Ever since I made an account on the book-centered social medium, I rated every book from 1 to 5 stars. Thoughtless, because it was an option, and because it felt complete. I rarely gave 1 star (who am to think a book is so shite?), same story with 5 stars (it’s gotta stay special). 2 only when highly irritated, and I found 3 all but easy. 4 stars. I only really gave 4 stars. Because I think giving stars is awkward. A book can speak to you because of so many reasons, and that doesn’t fit inside a small symbol. And mainly, I don’t want to rate my books. Why does everything have to be judged? And why the hell do I have to judge it? Does 5 seem to high? Maybe. But what at first seems like just a collection of stand-alone snippets of text manages to create a quietly effective, cohesive whole.