Hail, The Invisible Watchman

by Alexandra Oliver

A CBC Best Poetry Book of 2022
Hail, The Invisible Watchman is haunted poetry—Oliver’s formal schemes are as tidy as a picket-fence and as suggestive; behind the charm of rhyme is a vibrant, dark exploration of domestic and social alienation.
The poems in Hail, the Invisible Watchman are as tidy as a picket-fence—and as suggestive. Behind the charms of iambs lurks a dark exploration of domestic and social alienation. Metered rhyme sets the tone like a chilling piano score as insidiousness creeps into the neighbourhood. A spectral narrator surveils social gatherings in the town of Sherbet Lake; community members chime in, each revealing their various troubles and hypocrisies; an eerie reimagining of an Ethel Wilson novel follows a young woman into a taboo friendship with an enigmatic divorcée. In taut poetic structures across three succinct sections, Alexandra Oliver’s conflation of the mundane and the phantasmagoric produces a scintillating portrait of the suburban uncanny.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisp sonnets with crackling, surprising rhymes and schemes serve up seemingly innocuous domestic scenes with despair and menace lurking beneath. But something fierce, defiant and transcendent also melds these tightly orchestrated lines. These are intensely compressed stories of survival in the spirit of Ethel Wilson, whose Hetty Dorval informs the third section of this collection - and Alice Munro.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 5 out of 5]

RATING: 5 STARS
2022; Biblioasis

I loved Hail, the Invisible Watchman! This collection of poetry begs to be read slowly and reread some poems more than once...or twice. I have to say my love of Alexandra Oliver's poetry grew when I saw her live the summer of 2022. When I read Let the Empire Down I was a bit unsure of the poems as I did not get the tone (or at least, that is what I discovered after Oliver's reading). When I heard Oliver read and talk about her poems, and something clicked. I read Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway and I could not wait to read this book (which I had requested before I even went to the reading). Oliver's dry wit, humour and observations are just so lovely and at the same time have me saying "Ha!" and "Ah!" out loud. I will also add that I would classify this as (so called) "Canadian writing" in that there is tone, that maybe only I see that just screams Canadian writer. I am (im)patiently waiting for Oliver's next book.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read all three of Mrs. Oliver’s works, this being the latest, and all I can say is if you’re about to read this book, you’re in for a treat! The way she mixes the tranquil flow of words through her poems with delightfully dismal humor is like an abstract painting that you can read. If you enjoyed reading Hail, The Invisible Watchman, you should definitely put the rest of her books on your reading list!

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep, thoughtful, intriguing, heart-wrenching. These poems bring you to a place of reflection and consideration. "The Lipstick Effect" is one where, if you know, you know.

[Dan Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best collection of current poetry in the English language. To emulate Ezra Pound in his description of T.S. Eliot, that is all that needs to be said, but since I am no Ezra Pound, perhaps a few words are necessary to explain why Oliver is, maybe, the new T.S. Eliot. That reason is authenticity. And a piercing desire to claw at everything that is pretentious. Oliver is a master of exposing perfume as poison, the glitter made of asbestos, the seemingly beautiful toxicity that poses as glamour. I will never get tired of this collection. She is the best contemporary poet working today.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not a poem person...

[August Bourré · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very accomplished, from a technical perspective, just not my scene.