The Red Heart

Attic Books Verified independent store

→

James Reaney was an influential Canadian poet and playwright whose works transform small-town Ontario into the realm of dream and symbol. Almost all his poems, stories, and plays a re articulations of where he grew up in and around Stratford. At a young age he was interested in theatre and created a puppet show for children while in his early teens; this may explain "The Autobiography of a Marionette" (p. 40). Yet the theme of this collection is death and the futility of life; even an unborn child is travelling to the grave with its mother's heart ticking, measuring the time in "Dark Lagoon" (p. 38). But for a truly macabre experience, read "The Coffins" (p. 60). Show more