Karenin Sings the Blues

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
the author of No Greater Love.

Brush up on your Tolstoy. The first section of this erudite collection
is devoted to exploring the characters in Anna Karenina. In addition to
speaking in the voices of the Russian humans, McCartney assumes the
persona of a horse, a dog, a manuscript, a train, and a revolver. Every
poem in this section has some sort of surprise or twist.

The poems in the second section are about growing up in California, in
what is clearly a dysfunctional family, with an older sister who is
plainly ill in body and mind (and who eventually dies), and a brother
made bitter by his loveless upbringing. Section 3 is inspired to some
degree by Jane Austen’s novels, but also gives us glimpses into
McCartney’s present-day family life. The works in these last two
sections come closest to touching the heart as opposed to the brain.

The poems in Karenin Sings the Blues will make you think. The writing
is spare and nothing is wasted. There is an elegance, too, that
sometimes belies the tough subject matter.