Down Ghost Lane
Down Ghost Lane Keith’s stated aim with this collection is “to create sudden contrasts of mood and subject matter. If there are underlying themes that connect then I have left that for the reader to decide.” Down Ghost Lane This is indeed an emotional kaleidoscope which will surely stimulate all readers to stretch their powers of association. He could have made linear progressions of his main themes, and divided them into sections: the life story narratives, the self-criticism and self-parody, the social commentaries, the exploration of relationships, with their up- and down-sides, and the environmental observations. But he chose the discrete, dispersed approach, which to me is ‘true to life’, as in the course of living we are subjected to perpetual cross-currents. Good that the collection is laced with some song-lyrics, acknowledging this other vital area of Keith’s activity. It ends, appropriately, with obituaries of two of his late friends, tracing their terminal decline, and the cosmic dimensions of their departures.
