The Brevity of Red is the product of long reflection on loss: of a daughter, a sister, parents; and of familial stories. These intelligent, vivid, carefully crafted poems honour the dead, yet they avoid easy answers. Although they affirm the power of love and are centred in the personal, their tendency is centrifugal. Dramatic monologues in the voices of Hannah, Isaac, Job or a Mohenjo-daro carver of seals are reinforced by meditations on ancient artefacts that connect us to a vanishing past whose human pain, savagery, ...
Read More
The Brevity of Red is the product of long reflection on loss: of a daughter, a sister, parents; and of familial stories. These intelligent, vivid, carefully crafted poems honour the dead, yet they avoid easy answers. Although they affirm the power of love and are centred in the personal, their tendency is centrifugal. Dramatic monologues in the voices of Hannah, Isaac, Job or a Mohenjo-daro carver of seals are reinforced by meditations on ancient artefacts that connect us to a vanishing past whose human pain, savagery, whimsy and redemption illuminate our present day ironies and "joys / with the soil still on them." With fresh metaphors and emotionally resonant images, MacLean questions those places where we seek solace: our artistic imaginations, our religious traditions and myths, as well as the entrancing, but arbitrarily cruel natural world from which we spring. Always she calls us to attention within this moment. Her language is focused, her descriptions clear and precise. Though the mood is largely elegiac, it is also wry and surprisingly edgy, as it reaches for the grace notes of celebration.
Read Less
Add this copy of Brevity of Red, the to cart. $7.47, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Signature Editions.
Add this copy of The Brevity of Red to cart. $12.99, very good condition, Sold by Russell Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Victoria, BC, CANADA, published 2003 by Signature Editions.
Add this copy of Brevity of Red, the to cart. $32.66, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Signature Editions.
