{"product_id":"the-ventriloquist-gary-geddes-9781772442403","title":"The Ventriloquist: Poetic Narratives from the Womb of War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ventriloquist\u003c\/em\u003e gives us four fearless and seminal works by one of Canada's master poets and is a scathing indictment of war and its ravages. It's also a testament to the power of poetic narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGary Geddes is known for his first-person narrative poems and \"seamless impersonations.\" He sometimes speaks of his poetry as \u003cem\u003erescue work\u003c\/em\u003e, a term he attributes to Joseph Conrad, which involves \"gathering the vanishing fragments of memory and giving them the permanence of art.\" For Geddes, however, it's not personal memory, but tribal or collective memory that most demands his attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose figures from the past reaching out to be heard in \u003cem\u003eThe Ventriloquist \u003c\/em\u003einclude a youth in charge of horses on a doomed and bloody mission to the New World during the Spanish conquest; a so-called 'mad-bomber' who dies in a washroom of the House of Commons when the dynamite he is carrying explodes; a wily and outrageous Chinese sculptor and his legion of warrior subjects struggling against imperial edicts to conform; and POWs in Hong Kong and Japan in World War II doing their damnedest to survive, a struggle that continued back home in the face of shocking neglect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeddes finds that the phrase \"the ventriloquism of history\" perfectly describes his poetic process here and in other poems and jokingly admits that he's never quite sure if he's ventriloquist or dummy. His critics, however, have no doubt about his talent for \u003cem\u003egiving voice\u003c\/em\u003e, and have called his work \"stunning,\" \"wonderful,\" \"breathtaking in its imaginative reach and verbal dexterity.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf \u003cem\u003eWar \u0026amp; Other Measures \u003c\/em\u003eRobert Kroetsch wrote, \"It's the kind of poem poets are only supposed to be able to dream.... The sustained calibration is beautiful. I didn't know the long poem could be so taut.... The years of art and craft are in the book.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHong Kong Poems\u003c\/em\u003e prompted Michael Estok to say in a review in \u003cem\u003eFiddlehead\u003c\/em\u003e: \"It is a weighty and worthy and admirable undertaking.... [Geddes's] book of elegies puts him on the same level of poetic intensity (perhaps he even surpasses it) of Milton's 'Lycidas' or Tennyson's \u003cem\u003eIn Memoriam\u003c\/em\u003e.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese words of praise are reflected in the awards the books received: the E.J. Pratt Medal and Prize, Writers Choice Award, the National Magazine Gold Award, and Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A powerful indictment of war, showing through narrative power and lyrical intensity the personal cost of armed conflict.... Like [John] McCrae, Geddes speaks for the dead, reclaiming their voices, their stories, and a forgotten part of their lives. And what they have to tell us isn't pretty or patriotic. We are not told to 'take up the quarrel' or grasp the torch of war, but to beware, especially of language. The epigraph to Geddes' collection is a quote by Margaret Atwood: 'War happens when language fails.' If only our world leaders would exchange literature and not missiles, we might be able to avoid the destruction of life, spirit, and dignity that happens in war. Geddes' \u003cem\u003eThe Ventriloquist: Poetic Narratives from the Womb of War\u003c\/em\u003e should be first on their, and our, reading lists.\" ---Kevin Bushell, \u003cem\u003eThe Fiddlehead\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Gary Geddes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1772442402\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781772442403\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Rock's Mills Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/01\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 182\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.52lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.42d","brand":"Gary Geddes","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43994763821311,"sku":"9781772442403","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_9c8fdac2-5c50-407e-a8ae-da992bf3111b.jpg?v=1683332048","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-ventriloquist-gary-geddes-9781772442403","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}