Lost Cafeteria, The

by Joel Robert Ferguson

Taking cues from the 20th century life writing of Robin Blaser, Frank O'Hara, William Everson, Sylvia Plath and Alden Nowlan, The Lost Cafeteria is a stylistically shapeshifting bildungsroman in verse set between the author's evangelical upbringing and peripatetic adulthood. Exploring the shape of the "I-within-history," Ferguson mixes confessional lyric poetry with experimental détournements of advertising and human resources ideolects to visit (and revisit) themes of labour, family (biological and chosen), class, travel, religion, and the meanings of the word 'home.' The Lost Cafeteria traces the poet's development through "the first-world hinterlands" of Canada not in temporal but spatial terms, circling both the quotidian and singular events of a life. From the fruit orchards of interior British Columbia to social housing high-rises in downtown Winnipeg, from the expanses of the world's megacities to the parochialisms of a small-town, post-industrial childhood to the history-laden fieldscapes of Merry Olde England, Joel Robert Ferguson's debut collection of poems asks, "is it possible to separate nostalgia from regression?"

96 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[Leo McKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an impressively assured first collection of poems by Joel Robert Ferguson.

So humble and self-confident at the same time. So full of wonder and skepticism. So full of quietly moving observations and subtle turns of phrase that open up new chambers in the mind.

And the language is as solid as living stone.

When a book of poems is this good, reading it rewrites the software of your own mind in some way. You never think or see the same way again.

[Joel Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

One weird trick for increasing the number of books you read in a year! Bibliophiles HATE him!

[Hannah Foulger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really beautiful work.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning!