Necessary Crimes

Olga Costopoulos-Almon teaches English at the University of Alberta.

Catherine Hunter’s favorite themes are relationships with family and
friends, and she writes about them in a colloquial but precise style.
The first section of her book, “Accidents,” focuses on the losses
and stresses of life: death, illness, injury. Most moving is
“Riverbank,” about a mysterious drowning.” The second section,
“Working,” stresses two kinds of valuable labor: writing and
parenting. It begins with a poem called “ How to name things” and
ends with “Lullabye.” The last section of the book, a sequence
called “Suite,” brings together poems of pregnancy and mourning.

Hunter’s individual poems are good even though the thematic and
narrative links are not always clear, but that is a minor complaint.
Hunter has written an engaging collection of poems.