Hogg: The Poems and Drawings

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

In this domestic Homeric epic, Barry Callaghan’s Upper Canadian
Odysseus, James Hogg, an early 19th-century settler, is transported to
modern Jerusalem, contemporary Toronto, and beyond.

Hogg seeks the “Holy Holy Holy” in Jerusalem, but wanders in a
profane city. He is warned by Machpelah the “mole man” that “after
the dance of Salome, [you] will lose your head.” The following
section, a reworking of Callaghan’s 1988 book Stone Blind Love,
chronicles Hogg’s Toronto pilgrimages. The traditional Stations of the
Cross become local subway stops in a city colored by blues and jazz. The
book’s illustrations suggest the disconnected visions of a
schizophrenic.

Countering puzzling text with rhythm ’n’ blues, sex, and mystery,
Hogg does not guarantee satisfaction, but offers temptation.