Jonestown

Roger Nash is a professor of philosophy at Laurentian University, and
the editor of Spring-Feaver: An Anthology of Poems from the Ontario
Division of the League of Canadian Poets.

The subject of Fraser Sutherland’s 10th book is the People’s Temple
mass suicide at Jonestown. In writing the book, Sutherland set for
himself the difficult task of making “the banality of evil
spellbinding.” Though subtitled “a poem,” Jonestown could equally
well be regarded as a radio play for many voices. The work ends with a
“Table of Principal Characters,” and the “dialogue” approximates
ordinary speech. While the individual voices are banal, the book
maintains interest through its structure. Unfortunately, the sheer
number of voices (72) leads to diffuseness and needless
complexity—qualities that undermine the poet’s attempts to represent
evil as something simultaneously banal and riveting.