Review
Those who enjoyed Jerome's
Hope In Shadows collection, a series of non-fiction stories written by residents of the Downtown Eastside about their personal experiences, will be pleased to find that
Red Nest includes political references that relate to the poverty that is prevalent in Vancouver. Jerome revealed that "there is a sequence about light that relates to the Downtown Eastside," as well as a "poem called Epilogue for the people [she] worked with on the
Hope In Shadows book."
However, with this book Gillian shared that she wanted to include more universal themes such as "violence, war, poverty, love and domesticity, neighbourhoods and the importance of community." Jerome writes on these topics using otherworldly imagery, serving as a tool to examine "how the mythological is woven into our daily lives," she explained.
--Steven Chua, The UbysseyRed Nest is a diffuse book, a loose collection of moments rather than a book with a concrete strategy, but one that builds up a sense of the fecundity of daily experience, and of a cleanness of spirit - a cleanness not in the tidied way of a gleaming kitchen counter, but in the way fresh blood, or old compost, is clean ... Jerome's touch with her personifications and wordplay is so subtle that her effects are often cumulative, her devices only revealing themselves upon the pleasure of rereading.
--Sonnet L'Abbé, The Globe and MailGillian Jerome's poems are a visual feast. One of Jerome's gifts is ... her ability to spin a poem out into the dream world, even into the surreal, and then know exactly when to reel it back in. A reader could stay on one page of the book for hours at a time ...
―Emily Wall, Canadian LiteratureShe roams easily through both outdoor and urban landscapes, through topics that range from the birth of her child, "Firstborn," to brief, cogent observations on domestic chores. Her observations remind the reader that all things are interconnected.
--Jan Degrass, Coast Reporter (BC)Red Nest, photographer and teacher Gillian Jerome's first poetry collection, presents a startling combination of myth and gritty realism ... With a deft turn of phrase, she will combine threat and mockery ... Yet for all its grime and darkness there is hope here also and by statement and suggestion she helps us to "follow all signs of scattered light" ("The Looking Glass").
--Allan Brown, Jones Av.
About the Author
Gillian Jerome's first non-fiction book,
Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, won the 2009 City of Vancouver Book Award and was shortlisted for a BC Book Prize. She teaches literature at UBC and her poetry has been anthologized in
Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets. Jerome has lived in Montreal, Whistler, Banff, Australia, France and Arizona, where she completed an English graduate degree. She now lives in East Vancouver with her family.
