The Red Canoe: Love in Its Making (Notable Voices) [Paperback]

Joan Cusack Handler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2008 | Series: Notable Voices

A practicing psychologist and former marriage therapist unveils the role of parents, religion, children, illness and the emotional fiber of spouses on the treacherous terrain of marriage. Red Canoe is a valuable tool for professionals and a must read for couples.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JOAN CUSACK HANDLER'S first poetry collection, GlOrious, debuted in 2003. Recipient of four Pushcart nominations and The Sampler Award from The Boston Review, she's Founder/Publisher of CavanKerry Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Cavankerry; First edition. edition (November 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933880082
• ISBN-13: 978-1933880082
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,742,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Gifted Writer, December 15, 2008

By 

A grateful reader. (elmsford, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Canoe: Love in Its Making (Notable Voices) (Paperback)

I am not your "typical poetry person" but this collection from Cusack Handler is awesome. It is extremely reader friendly and filled with amazing imagery that takes us through the story of her marriage. She holds nothing back and digs into private spaces that most of us would fear to go. It rivets the reader like a novel and sweeps you along the turbulance that comprises so many relationships that are too meaningful to leave but sometimes seem too painful to work through. I also read her book ,"Glorious", which is very different but equally powerful.

4.0 out of 5 stars vulnerabilities as roadways to connections with others, February 12, 2009

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Canoe: Love in Its Making (Notable Voices) (Paperback)

In these poems, the poet is wounded, but does not, cannot heal. Handler is a psychologist as well, and also much involved in poetry organizations. The wounds are not definable or familiar psychological wounds. They have to do with more than the mind or even particular situation or experience; though they are exposed usually in the context of marriage and its ties and incidents.

The style of the poems is not confessional, nor complaining. The poet does not plumb for roots or causes. The wounds are an inherent part of being alive. Not attenuated however feebly by hope, recrimination, or reason, they bring the poet extraordinary power of observation, sometimes unerring and painful in itself; but sympathy too, for herself as well as others. Often keenly aware of herself and at times seeing her circumstances and feelings like a plight, sometimes momentarily angry from the irrationality of it all, Handler nevertheless sees her wounds as vulnerabilities and a type of openness which connect her to others in her life.