Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Erin Noteboom, Poet, is Erin Bow, YA Novelist

Hi all,

The post directly below this one is a reprint of my earlier article, reviewing Erin Noteboom's Ghost Maps. Erin Noteboom also has written another gorgeous book of poetry Seal up the Thunder (Toronto: Wolsack and Wynn, 2005) and a bittersweet memoir, The Mongoose Diaries (2007).

What some readers may not realize is that Erin Noteboom, poet, is also Erin Bow, influential YA novelist. Using her husband's last name, Erin produced the wildly popular YA novel Plain Kate (Scholastic) in 2010. Erin Bow's most recent YA, Sorrow's Knot, was released in October 2013 as a Publisher's Weekly Book of the Week.

Since this is a blog about novels-in-verse, I'll jump to make the connection here. Erin Noteboom's poetic voice was drawn to the long, storytelling form. Erin Bow's YA voice is drawn to the poetic. Strength comes from strength, producing wonders, don't you think?

Check out Erin Bow's website for more info, photos, and contacts. Enjoy!





Erin Noteboom: Ghost Maps



During her visits of April through December 1995, Erin Noteboom recorded her conversations with Carl Hruska, an American veteran of WWII. 

The resultant book of poetry, Ghost Maps: Poems for Carl Hruska, is part oral history and part journey of imagination.  In places she retells his story through her own verse.  In others, Noteboom lets Hruska’s words stand on their own, unadorned.

Hruska had been a homestead-bound Iowa farmer before the war, so his way of interpreting the many strange new experiences is through the language of horse and plow.  From the deck of a troop transport ship he sees the Atlantic Ocean in terms of a field of wheat, (1) and describes the first negro sailor he meets as having a head a “lambswool head.” (2) In the depth of winter in the Ardennes, he speaks of soldiers asleep, braced against each other “like sheaves of wheat.” (3) Killing his first enemy soldier left him with grisly, ambivalent feelings, like chopping “a black snake with a hoe.” (4)

In this selection, from Waste Noteboom records, with third-person detachment, how Hruska lost his leg.


It happened in an orchard.


*


Lying there, he stares



into the ragged holes that wasps have chewed



in windfall apples – soft



as mud, now, brown



as the hand of frost.  Gone


*


to waste.  By that alone



he might have guessed at mines.  This



hungry country. (5)


The lacing of wispy verse around verbatim accounts reminds the reader of handwork, of embroidery with appliqués. Vivian Hruska’s life of waiting back on the farm -- knitting, doing chores – often appears in the form of letters to her husband overseas. These bits of plainspoken rural news relieve the reader from the grisly wartime narrative, just as they surely formed comfortable daydreams into which Hruska could retreat as he fought his way toward that fateful apple orchard. 

In the end, we readers are left with a compelling story of marriage, of people called out from their normal lives, of countryside at peace and war.

1. Noteboom, Erin. Ghost Maps: Poems for Carl Hruska. (Toronto:  Wolsak and Wynn.  2003.) 17.
2. ibid.
3. ibid., 26
4. ibid., 21
5. ibid., 50

For more information about the poetry of war, and other related topics, please scroll down to my posts on  
  • History: A Home Movie, 
  • The Unraveling Strangeness
  • Les Murray’s Fredy Neptune
For poetry that most closely resembles Vivian Hruska’s memories, please visit Kyrie and Tamsen Donner: A Woman’s Journey in the article "The Way-Back Machine."





Sam Savage: The Criminal Life of Effie O






Illustrated poem, novel-in-verse, Sam Savage has written a children’s book for adults.  With simple, deft verse he sketched out characters readers can really care about.

***

In his introduction to The Criminal Life of Effie O, Sam Savage (a.k.a. The Old Rat) explains that he wanted to write a children’s book for his kids, but they grew up. This hilarious and touching illustrated novel-in-verse is what he wrote instead.  It is composed in rhyme by a skillful hand, and illustrated with charming line drawings by Virginia Beverley. 

As is the case in folk tales and children’s stories, simple shorthand is employed.  Substitute “suburbs” for “dark woods” and “the city” for “the enchanted castle.” This urban/suburban, good/bad equation is employed without comment. For his purposes Savage needs “Wal-Mart,” “subdivision” and assorted familiars to stand in for the stultifying malaise that often overcomes relationships, and individuals.

He might even say that “suburbs” have happened to both of Savage’s main characters. The eponymous Effie O is the love child souvenir of her mother Janet’s wide-ranging youth. Janet settled down from life on the road in order to raise and support Effie, yet 15 years later neither are happy with the life stability and prosperity has brought. Janet expresses her frustration in overwork and alcohol. Effie takes hers out on walls, benches, toilet stalls, and anything else she can hit with a can of spray paint.  Effie steals to support her graffiti habit, and is caught. 

In this selection, Child Psychologist Dr. Zell and Effie have an encounter.

After a dis-

harmonious hour

with Effie in his office,

Zell has a diagnosis

of the odd moroseness

that has her lately

so peaked and pasty.

*

He asked her questions (pried)

and Effie answered (lied).

*

He knew that she was lying.

She knew what he was trying. (1)


From therapist’s office Effie’s story careens through DSS, the courts, and eventually a juvenile correctional facility. Janet is having her own problems both at work and in the gated community where her how-did-I-end-up-here-from-where-I-started mid-life crisis is putting her at odds with the status quo. 

While in real life these events would be troubling, in the hands of a wise and benevolent poet this is the thread from which an uplifting story is woven. Savage understands and respects both troubled youth and middle-aged bureaucrat. He even issues an apology to hard-working teachers and social workers who might feel insulted by their analogs in the book. One comes away from The Criminal Life of Effie O with renewed compassion for self and others.  Well done.


1) Savage, Sam. The Criminal Life of Effie O. (Madison: Papas and Nellie Press. 2005.) 75-76.

For more information about illustration of poetry, image in poetry, and other related topics, please visit my articles on Journal: the short life and mysterious death of Amy Zoe Mason, Illustrated Poetry, and Janet Holmes' The Green Tuxedo.

Which Book Would You Buy Based on Title Alone?


Of the five poetry books in our selection, which would you buy on title alone? The final vote numbers are as follows:

The Lost Lunar Baedeker (21.43%) by Mina Loy

To Repel Ghosts (28.57%) by Kevin Young


Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain (35.71%) by Amy Uyematsu

The Flute Ship Castricum (14.29%) by Amy England

The Book of Orgasms (0.00%) by Nin Andrews

Poor Nin Andrews lost out. I recall The Book of Orgasms as funny and far, far better that I feared it might be, given the over-ambitious title.

Follow up thoughts: Does your vote change when you consider the authors? Number of pages? Price?