You

You
by Gary Hyland
Published by Hagios Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$17.95 ISBN 978-0-9783440-6-1

In the introduction to his latest book, You, celebrated Moose Jaw poet Gary Hyland declares that the relationship between poet and reader “fascinates” him. In the poems that follow he explores the various modes in which that seemingly simple pronoun, “you,” is deployed, and the diverse relationships – and “variations on relationships” – which spin upon it.

If readers are at all familiar with Saskatchewan literature, they are familiar with Gary Hyland. His list of awards – literary, teaching, community-based – is long and impressive, including, recently, the Book of the Year and the Poetry Award (2008 Saskatchewan Book Awards) for Love of Mirrors: Poems New and Selected. With You, however, Hyland fans can expect a somewhat different voice than in earlier publications. It is at once more immediate, more introspective, and perplexed. In these meditations on life – its meaning and beauty, its quiescence and transience – Hyland does not offer answers, but like any truly clever human being, he does ask the right questions. You is his finest book, and his most important.

The term “postmodern” could be applied to this work. It often draws attention to its own existence, or to the reader. “Salvation,” for example, begins: “This poem’s as boring as leaves wet with rot.” (Not true, by the way). In “I Knew It Would Be You,” we read ” … this poem accepts complete responsibility,” and even titles demonstrate self-awareness, ie: “The Book That Knows It’s A Book” and “Is This About You?”. The latter poem is a two-page litany rife with Hyland-esque humour, ie: “If your right foot is in a cast\because you kicked your neighbour’s cat\in winter and lo and behold\it was already dead and frozen,\this poem is not about you.”

Two stanzas later: “If you have attempted or\thought seriously about\repairing a defective condom,\this poem is not about you.”

More interesting, though, are the wisdoms Hyland shares gained from a lifetime of watching, listening, and contemplating. In “Here,” the poet writes: “We are not Atlantic or Pacific\but both and all the stops between.” “Solarity” is an ode to the sun: “Always you have been at the centre\too brilliant to be seen” and “Even praise misses you.” From another ode, “Meadowlark”: “On your lichened boulder\you all but burst with the bliss of seeing.”

One could spend a long time within the layers of this book. Firstly, it should be enjoyed for its own sake, but it also deserves study. Consider these lines: “All day the day has spoken to me.” “Of course death is an equation,\an igloo of water in a sea of ferns”. “Everyone is wrong about everyone else,\all those secrets wasting in secret places.” “I hold you in the way\a forest holds wolves on a winter night.” “Silence always wins.” Poems like the brilliant and touching “You Are Here” and “Turning to Brick” I wish I could quote in their entirety.

You has been published by Hagios Press. It is a small book. It is a red book. It is a heart.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Published in:  on 21 May 2009 at 12:24 pm Leave a Comment
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Waiting for Elvis

Waiting for Elvis
Written by David Elias
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$21.00 ISBN 9-781550-503944

Winnipeg writer David Elias is making a name for himself as a writer of increasingly interesting books. Coteau Books recently published his fourth, the novel “Waiting for Elvis,” and because I was ardently cheering for these hardluck characters, I had a hard time putting the book down.

This time Elias focuses on the people that own “Betty’s Diner — Home of the Giant Cinnamon Bun,” a typical highway truck-stop, and on those who pass through its humble doors. Truckers and the odd tour bus of casino-patronizing seniors are its major clientele, but Betty and husband Arty’s miscreant son, Tony, and the criminal crowd he chums with, also make appearances. When a strange, mute, and beaten man stumbles into the diner from the surrounding forest, nothing is ever the same again.

For Betty, this is a wonderful thing. As a child she lived a life of relative privilege, and was known as “Elizabeth”. An alcoholic mother living in a squalid Winnipeg flophouse is a constant reminder of how far, and quickly, her life regressed. Now Betty’s bored, and thinks that “a bulldozer might be the best thing that ever happened” to the diner. Her family is a crucible. She has a hard time loving her only child: “She and Arty have made all the rounds with the social worker and psychologists. Put up with all the looks from the teachers and principals at school. Jumped through all the hoops with the probation officers and lawyers and priests. It’s been one thing after another with him right from the start … She could never understand how it happened that he got so bad so fast … Making her cry is what Tony had always done best.” Elias does a laudable job of showing how Tony’s evil and self-destructive ways began at an early age. It’s shocking.

And there are more shocks. Sal, who was horribly abused by his mother’s partner, “Clothespin Harry,” now lives like an animal in the forest beside the highway. He exists on the food travelers discard, and has created a shanty among the trees. But Sal’s ghosts have followed him. He has visions, and nightmares, and has created a “garden of pain” with car accident refuse (twisted metal, shattered glass, chains) which he’s strung from the pines. When his inner pain is too much, he “[Runs] into that garden of pain full tilt … Make it cut … Make it bleed … A crankshaft comes out of nowhere … He tackles a chrome bumper, then a rusted muffler … crushes the muscle and bone of his shoulder and still he will not stop.”

Now here’s the wondrous thing: Elias’s novel is a story of redemption. Betty “Sees there the thing [Sal] carries around with him always, the bold beauty of his quiet humility.” And she makes a kind of unexpected peace with her son.

“Waiting for Elvis” is the kind of book that would inspire much discussion and debate; it would be a terrific title for book clubs.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Published in:  on 13 May 2009 at 9:39 am Leave a Comment
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Song Dogs

Song Dogs
By Betty Wilson
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall
Price: $ 9.95 CDN ISBN: 1-55050-216-6

Anyone who has heard coyotes yipping and howling across the prairie will have no trouble identifying Betty Wilson’s Song Dogs.

Wilson conveys the story of these animals with humor and understanding, in this nonfiction book for middle grades and older. She describes their unique call as “warnings, greetings, threats and a little hollering just for the heck of it.”

The book follows a young coyote named Silvertip, and other coyotes nearby, as he grows up in a particular section of rural Alberta. Using the traditions of creative nonfiction, Wilson names the coyotes and situates their stories in the gritty realism of their habitat. For instance, Silvertip fights off a bout of distemper, loses his toes in a trap, and survives fever and infection.

Along with his mate Shadow and several other coyotes, Silvertip must fight for survival against man and the hardships of the environment. Wilson pulls no punches about the role of man in their story. The ranchers hunt them with rifles, traps, hounds and snowmobiles. The coyotes must also survive rattlesnakes, winter, starvation, and other trials of the wild.

These playful and resourceful animals punctuate their lives with their voices: “Suddenly the night was alive with coyote song, echoing with ventriloquist’s magic, from family to family, back and forth across the river valley.”

Pencil sketches appear throughout the pages as well. The book was a finalist for the Canadian Library Association book award for children.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Published in:  on 6 May 2009 at 9:43 am Leave a Comment
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