Hooked
by Carolyn Smart
London, ON: Brick Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-894078-61-0, 115 pp., $18.00 paper.

life is murder
and art is even worse:
do I dare to plunge into this journey?
                        ("Ardent," Elizabeth Smart, 103)

Carolyn Smart's fifth and latest collection of poetry, Hooked, is not for the weak of heart, but for those who dare enter the lives of seven extraordinary women. Indeed, the women we meet in this book are as tough as they come and include child killer Myra Hindley, Hitler enthusiast Unity Valkyrie Mitford, crazed, spoilt, desperate, cruel, or alcoholic artists and writers Zelda Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Smart, Dora Carrington, Carson McCullers and Jane Auer Bowles, all of whom are so self-absorbed they allow their unhealthy obsessions to take over their lives, destroying them and ruining countless others along the way. Wilful characters who challenge not only authority but social and moral expectations about love, they plunge into the dark unknown. By turning her characters "outside in" and allowing us to understand how their minds work, Smart tries to show us "the full impression of a human being" (81), warts and all.

Speaking in long dramatic dialogues, Smart's characters tell their stories breathlessly and for the most part convincingly, but for their occasional thrust toward exposition. Yet, Hooked can pull us into this world only so far, since readers are given only the name and date of birth and death for each voice, so if you aren't already familiar with these stories, you miss a lot. Still, there is plenty here to keep readers turning the page since it isn't necessary to understand everything to experience the horror, or hear the desperate tone in the women's voices, to find oneself believing every word even if the speakers are unreliable. To be able to create this sort of intimacy between the narrator and her readers is a tribute to Smart's craftsmanship, especially since many of these characters are so unlikeable. Yet this isn't entirely new ground for Smart--Stoning the Moon, an earlier poetry collection, also explored the seeds of violence in its title poem about the abduction of a child. That poem, gripping then, continues to haunt me years later just as I suspect some of the poems in this collection will.

Hooked also seems a natural progression from her more recent memoir, At the End of the Day, since these poems seem to rely less on image than on story. Most noticeable, however, is Smart's dependence upon borrowed text, sometimes so much so that the weight of the poem shifts from fiction to nonfiction. In creative nonfiction this combination works really well, but in poetry, where each word and phrase must be carefully measured, it's much more challenging to get the balance right. Perhaps it's just my academic nostrils flaring as I search for the familiar scent of footnotes or endnotes -- more than her quick admission in the Acknowledgments that "[d]irect quotations taken from these sources are italicized" that rattles me. As an engaged reader I want to know the original line, its context and its origin. At the same time, the intuitive part of me wants to trust Smart's decision to go with the flow--to deliver story seamlessly and to believe this technique is more about timing and tone than fairness to text since, after all, this is fiction. I also want to think her decision not to identify borrowed bits has something to do with showing us the creases of humanity fold by ugly fold without coming up for air--although I'm not completely convinced of this, since italicized type interrupts the flow of text and often indicates a change in voice or tone. Readers may also bristle with the formulaic or predictable organization of these stories, a tool Smart uses to inform us about her characters' background, actions, and death. A more random approach might feel more like a series of asides, which is often how people relay stories. But then, maybe I'm not thinking like her characters, who are more calculating and deliberate and may be playing with our expectations of story so that they can shape our response to it.

For all my whining, Hooked succeeds in setting the bait--these stories are unusual and engaging--pure passion and evil. So realistic are they at times the speakers seem alive and make me feel as if I'm being dragged out behind them in their desperate need to tell someone, anyone, their "truth." Small, frequently violent gems, the stories are richly inspirational and I've no doubt they will help spawn other books in the years to come. Until then, these poems ensure we won't go gentle into the good night, but instead rage against the familiar questions rising in our consciousness or unconsciousness: who am I? what does it really mean to be human? what does it mean to love?

look at me here.
do I look like me?
this is me.
I have soft eyes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

look at me:
the raccoon eyes
porcelain face

I have a cruel, hard streak inside me

what do you think I dream?

                                    (Myra Hindley, IX and XI, 21 and 23)

Kath MacLean's poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction have earned her national acclaim. Her first book, for a Cappuccino on Bloor, was the recipient of the New Muse Award. She teaches creative writing at Grant MacEwan College and operates her own business.

Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.

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