Short Histories of Light
Regular price
€19.99
A01=Aidan Chafe
Author_Aidan Chafe
Category=DC
Category=DCF
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
Product details
- ISBN 9780773552760
- Weight: 142g
- Dimensions: 127 x 191mm
- Publication Date: 02 Feb 2018
- Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
- Publication City/Country: CA
- Product Form: Paperback
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Shiver. Swift whip of wind. / Fangs of the low front / stinging fierce as forest fires. / Frost thickening the stoop. In his debut collection, Short Histories of Light, Aidan Chafe recounts his Catholic upbringing in a household dealing with the common but too often taboo subject of mental illness. In unflinching fashion, Chafe reveals the unintended disasters that follow those who struggle with depression and the frustration of loved ones left to pick up the pieces. Other sections of the book shine a light on the wounds inflicted by systems of patriarchy, particularly organized religion, and the caustic nature of humanity. Imagery and metaphor illuminate Chafe's writing in a range of poetic forms, both modern and traditional. A boy stares helplessly through the walls of the family home, watches "filaments in glass skulls buzzing." A father's birthmark is described as a "scarlet letter." Grandma is portrayed as a "forgotten girl on a Ferris wheel of feelings." Vivid and haunting, at once tender and terse, Short Histories of Light captures what it feels like to be a short circuit in a world of darkness.
Aidan Chafe is a public school teacher and the author of the chapbooks Right Hand Hymns and Sharpest Tooth. He lives in Burnaby, BC.
