Hooked: seven poems

by Carolyn Smart

An elegant and sinister collection of dramatic monologues. Hooked is a stunning new collection of seven poems about seven famous or infamous Myra Hindley, Unity Mitford, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dora Carrington, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, and Elizabeth Smart. Each of these women was hooked on, and her life contorted by, an addiction or obsession. Here we have seven variations on the insoluble conundrum of sexuality - each in a remarkably distinct, authentic voice. xiii
I am conversant with my
middle-aged, untrained, the graduate
of half a dozen homes for the insane
I walk correctly through a world I do not understand
where has my life gone to
beside the smell of paints and
the texture of the canvas in my rough and awkward hands?
a show of paper dolls and stories starring anguish
that's my artistic life
- from "Rickety Rackety" (Zelda Sayre July 24, 1900 - March 10, 1948) Carolyn Smart brilliantly recreates seven lives of great colour. These women, all born before the end of World War II, struggle to find - or escape - their roles in a society hostile to female intelligence and ambition. Here are the agonies of the half-lived life; talents and voices that are lost or go astray in seven different ways, at a time before the greater freedoms that Feminism brought to the Western World. Whether these women have artistic success or not they are, in these astonishing poems, devastatingly articulate about their difficult lives.

Genres: Poetry, Canada

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2009

About the author

Carolyn Smart's collections of poetry have been Swimmers in Oblivion (York Publishing, 1981), Power Sources (Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1982), Stoning the Moon (Oberon Press, 1986), The Way to Come Home (Brick Books, 1993), Hooked - Seven Poems (Brick Books, 2009 and Careen (Brick Books, 2015). Her memoir At the End of the Day was published by Penumbra Press in 2001, and an excerpt won first prize in the 1993 CBC Literary Contest. She has taught poetry at the Banff Centre and participated online for Writers in Electronic Residence. She is the founder of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and since 1989 has been Professor of Creative Writing at Queen's University. She has recently completed a manuscript of poetry entitled Careen.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

i devoured this book in one read. while i knew of some of the women portrayed, there were a few i hadn't heard of, such as Hitler fan, Unity Valkyrie Mitford and mass murderer Myra Hindley. in 7 long poems, Smart writes in 7 different voices, with different cadences, different tones & styles for each woman. in an age where so much Canadian poetry is written as thinly disguised autobiography, it is a joy to see someone write in other voices. i enjoy it when a book causes me to explore further. i am fascinated by the lives of people who history has forgotten. i shall be rereading this book. and i plan to read more on the women who were portrayed.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of Carolyn Smart before; this book blew me away.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carolyn Smart's Hooked uses a wickedly irresistible premise: a twisted chorus of famous/infamous female figures from history and letters expounding vividly on obsession. Smart has fascinatingly curated the stories of women who made misguided and horrific choices for their objects of desire, and determinedly saw that desire through to often tragic conclusions: Myra Hindley, serial killer partner to Ian Brady (for Canadians, the pairing is clearly Homolka-Bernardo); Unity Mitford, aristocratically born contrarian who became a confidante of Hitler; Zelda Fitzgerald, gifted, increasingly fragile spouse of F. Scott Fitzgerald; Dora Carrington, a painter associated with the Bloomsbury Group who carried a lifelong, unreciprocated passion for writer Lytton Strachey; Carson McCullers, a renowned writer who struggled with relationships, ill health and alcoholism; Jane Bowles, a talented, underrated writer who lived an unconventional and peripatetic life with husband Paul Bowles; and Elizabeth Smart, a poet whose work was overshadowed in her lifetime by the scandal of her enduring passion for poet George Barker, with whom she had and then singlehandedly raised four children.

As perversely and diversely interesting as the subject matter and cast of characters are, the voices from segment to segment in Hooked are somewhat disappointingly similar. Rhythm, cadence and pace are not so vividly distinguished as one might expect given the women's different nationalities, social upbringings, mental states and time periods in which they lived, not to mention the varieties of types of charisma and inaccessible attractions with which each was enraptured. In some cases, there is too much admittedly clever direct quoting of sources (clear as such because it is italicized), but not enough true transmutation and alchemy to turn those sources into fresh perspectives and something of Smart's own.

Hooked has inspired me to revisit or expand my reading on all of these figures, both in biographical and fictional realms. Less so, Hooked has impressed me with Smart's inventiveness as a poet, but her resourcefulness with respect to exploring subject matter will still likely compel me to seek out more of her work.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooked by Carolyn Smart is a brilliant piece of literature. She manages to give thought to the human condition by considering the thoughts of seven different women. A must read and something that should be read carefully.

my complete review

[Beth Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book club selection for April 2014