Barry McKinnon

Martin Singleton was a poet living in Toronto.

This little book begins with a half-page sketch of the high points of McKinnon’s life, then moves neatly into a discussion of the poetry. Throughout, biography is followed by textual (and thematic) analysis, and the effect of the former on the content and style of the latter is a major strength of this book. Thus, the reader may follow McKinnon’s progress from the early, stylistically conservative poet in Montreal to the innovative poem-cycle composer of Prince George, stretching limits of diction and association.

This is a short book, and it omits a formal bibliography: one is indeed unnecessary since textual references are cited within the body of the work. At any rate, most of the discussion is based on the 1980 Coach House edition of The the, which is comprised largely of McKinnon’s earlier chapbooks. Similarly footnotes, which appear at the end of the text, are kept to a minimum. While the typeface is atrocious — ironic given that McKinnon is a skilled and meticulous book-designer — the efforts of both publisher and author to produce an inexpensive introduction to McKinnon’s work should be given much praise.