Hand Luggage: A Memoir in Verse

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

After a lifetime of artistic activity that has produced some of the
finest poetry and distinctive painting in Canada, P.K. Page now offers
us a memoir in verse, aptly described within the text as a “colloquial
memoir.” It is written in an endearingly chatty, garrulous style, and
its appeal will (or should) be felt even by those who rarely read
poetry. To her numerous admirers it will, of course, prove a delight.

She has employed an alliterative, basically anapestic form, laced with
occasional rhyme. This allows her to skate readily over the inevitably
prosaic passages but rise to poetic climaxes (thanks to her
characteristic gift for metaphor) when appropriate. She reproduces the
past vividly and therefore memorably, but is fond of interpolating
within brackets benefit-of-hindsight remarks, which are often deflating.

Hand Luggage begins in Calgary in the 1920s and ends in British
Columbia in the 2000s. Her prime focus is on her literary and artistic
interests (though only occasionally mentioning her own work) and her
years as a diplomat’s wife. We find succinct vignettes of pre-war
London and pre-JFK New York, but Australia (with New Guinea), Brazil
(especially Brazil!), and Mexico receive the most attention.

This is for the most part “verse” as distinct from the more
close-packed and exalted utterance we call “poetry,” yet the text is
strewn with dazzling brief passages (often one-liners) that only
“P.K.” could produce. I append samples: “bigoted bachelors with
British accents”; fish “as solemn as clergy, as painted as
clowns”; “Canadians pale as white bread, plastic-wrapped” (as seen
after returning from Australia); rich Brazilian mansions described as
“late wedding cake dressed / with early baroque.”

This is a book to be treasured. Moreover, as usual, The Porcupine’s
Quill has done justice to the contents: cover, general design, and
well-produced illustrations combine to produce a work of art worthy of
the work of art that it contains.