To the sound of smashing glass, Sunshine Coast poet Joe Denham has broken into a new genre.
The Year of Broken Glass, published by Nightwood Editions, is a strange tale of magical realism full of new age cult myth, characters who live in trees or globe houses and a planet rocked by earthquake and volcanic eruption.
Ferris, or Francis as he prefers to be known, is a fisherman who lives near Halfmoon Bay, not unlike Denham himself. He finds a blown glass float with a strange marking on it. At first he considers it to be an attractive trinket until his friend Svend discovers how much it's worth to the right buyer.
Ferris is torn between his two lives, one with his wife Anna and their child Willow, and another with Jin Su, his Vancouver sweetheart and their child Emily. He hopes to use the money from sale of the float to solve his personal problems, and he is moved to check out the float's origin. In this way he comes to know Miriam, an aging island resident who has knowledge of the legend behind the mysterious float. The two embark on a Pacific Ocean adventure so real and harrowing it is obviously drawn from first hand experience.
The book's strength is in the poetry of the narration; it is eloquently written. The reader can feel the shadow of the albatross winging over the small yacht and can writhe with the sailors in the stupefying calm of the horse latitudes. The ocean becomes a character - one to be treated with respect.
Yet the story is somewhat disjointed because Denham plays fast and loose with the technique of point of view, jumping from one character's head to the other without warning to the reader. Sometimes a knowledgeable omniscient narrator fills in the blanks; other times Ferris or Miriam provide context. When it's Anna's turn to tell her story, she gives a reasoned environmental rant that one suspects is shared by the writer.
Denham is the author of two poetry collections, Flux (2003) and Windstorm (2009). His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets and Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets.
Denham launched his latest book on April 27 in Sechelt and he was joined by other authors from local publishers Nightwood and Caitlin Press: Adam Pottle, Kevin McNeilly and Ursula Vaira. The four seemed comfortable together, a fresh wave of contemporary writers, each with a book full of surprises and quality writing.
McNeilly, a teacher of English, read from his poetry collection, Embouchure, and accompanied his presentation with music. Pottle was thoroughly entertaining with self-deprecating humour. His speech is reminiscent of an Irish or an Australian accent, but in fact, it is the speech he was born with and this is among the subjects of Beautiful Mutants, his first full-length collection.
Anyone who has journeyed on a wilderness kayaking or camping trip can relate to Vaira's collection of poems in And See What Happens, the Journey Poems. The title poem of her collection was a finalist in the CBC Literary Competition and was published as a chapbook called A Thousand Miles.
In all, they are a fine selection of new books. The Year of Broken Glass can be found for $24.95 at local bookstores.
