Company Town

Chris Faiers, winner of the 1987 Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award,
is author of Foot Through the Ceiling.

Company Town has no pretensions to high art—it is one of the best
examples of “work poetry” I have read. Too bad the general reading
public hasn’t twigged to poetry. This book demonstrates in an hour or
so of reading how you can learn as much as you could possibly want to
know about a rapidly vanishing part of Canadian history: the salmon
canneries on the rivers of British Columbia.

Turner investigates every facet of his fictionalized composite cannery,
the Raskell Packing Company (Raspaco). Poems examine Raspaco’s
history, politics, workers, bosses, and job descriptions. The book even
includes pictures and diagrams of such bizarrely named machines as the
“iron chink.”

The book itself is workmanlike. Poem titles read like job descriptions:
“How To Dress A Salmon”; “Your Quality Grader”; “Freezer
Labour.” Another technique Turner uses is to have various characters
give their perspective on other fishery personalities: “Art Sakic on
Dean”; “Red Cross Lady on Art Sakic”; “Dean on the Red Cross
Lady.” This is how small towns really work. The approach weaves the
web of the social life of the cannery. Unfortunately, I found many of
the thumbnail sketches too barebones. I would have enjoyed a little more
flesh and blood on the characters.

Turner has a degree in anthropology, and this background helps him
present a thorough, objective, and educated overview of all facets of
the cannery. However, I find it unusual that a book about a cannery is
so lacking in poetic synesthesia—“blood and guts”—sight, smell,
sound, and taste. Often first collections are overly indulgent in these
areas, coming as they usually do from a highly subjective viewpoint. I
feel that Turner’s work has gone to the other extreme; it is too
objective, so much so that it risks becoming dispassionate. Enjoyable as
this book is, I hope Turner adds more color and flavor to his future
poetry, to flesh it out for his readers.