Ghost Works

Laura Ponti-Sgargi is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

In these three autobiographical narratives, the author is haunted by
dreams, the memory of her mother, and the questioning of a transmutable
self that evolves with the journeys she takes (thus, inner journey is
mirrored by outer journey). “Zуcalo” (1977) takes place in Mexico,
where the narrative fluctuates between the ancient ruins that represent
“a past [we] cannot understand” and the conflicts that arise—due
to disparities in race, gender, class, and sexuality—when one strives
to understand the present. “Zуcalo” is written in poetic prose and
is the more comprehensive and captivating of the three narratives.

In “The Month of Hungry Ghosts” (1979), a journey is taken to
Marlatt’s childhood home in Malaysia, while in the final excursion to
England—“How Hug a Stone” (1983)—her role as mother is
juxtaposed with the memory of her own mother. These two narratives mix
letters, journal notes, verse, and prose in a characteristically
postmodern manner in which meaning is often cryptic or elusive. As
Marlatt self-consciously strives to re-create the realities she
experiences, she asks, “without narrative how can we see where we’ve
been? or, unable to leave it altogether, what we come from?” Readers
will be challenged and provoked by these haunting narratives.