Literary / Arts
Can’t Stop Reading This Book
Dale Perkins, Nanaimo
Volume 33 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: March 28, 2019
I have never read a book more than once; certainly never five times. But that is what has happened as far as Palmer’s latest book.
I cannot tell of cogent reasons why — just that I cannot stop myself from picking it up again to devour another page or chapter. I’m hooked!
I shiver when acknowledging its power over me … why? Certainly it’s well written and happily not dense with high-minded vocabulary and analysis. He’s written it simply and with infectious humour. As one lucid protagonist writes in the forward – “Parker is … one of my greatest mentors.” He’s mine as well.
I have never read a book more than once; certainly never five times. But that is what has happened as far as Palmer’s latest book.
I cannot tell of cogent reasons why — just that I cannot stop myself from picking it up again to devour another page or chapter. I’m hooked!
I shiver when acknowledging its power over me … why? Certainly it’s well written and happily not dense with high-minded vocabulary and analysis. He’s written it simply and with infectious humour. As one lucid protagonist writes in the forward – “Parker is … one of my greatest mentors.” He’s mine as well.
Consequently, what I’m sharing is intimate and not a critical analysis. If readers dislike that then I would urge them to move on to another item in the paper. I also recognize that this tribute probably has more to do with me and my life-situation than to offer an erudite review.
The book is short – just 184 pages – with lots of poems intersecting the script – some from Palmer himself, and some of Mary Oliver’s and a plethora of outstanding authors. However, Palmer touches nerve-endings for all of us living in the final chapters of our life.
Perhaps that explains my enthusiasm for the book, i.e., Palmer has tapped into my life: not to analyse short-comings and inadequacies; just to offer himself as a fellow-traveller longing to be a whole person, warts and all.
Dale Perkins, Nanaimo