Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way is the latest collection of poems by a writer whom Al Purdy has compared to Emily Dickinson and Margaret Avison. "I have the sense of seeing things with her eyes and mind," Purdy said in his introduction to her first book, She Reminds Me of Vermeer, "of actually being in her situation, and it's this intimacy that gives her poems power."

These are poems of waiting, of aging, prosaic poems where an overwhelming sense of menace bursts in upon everyday life, such as in McCarthy's description of a ride with a moody transit driver:

Puddles leapt, trees jumped over hedges,
were we bound for glory on the Kingsway line?
None asked, the Budget Mart spun by,
pumpkins like misshapen moons piled around its door.
("Muggy Afternoons")

Humorous and insightful, the poetry of Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way is guaranteed to move and delight the reader.

Maureen McCarthy is a writer, mother and nurse who lives in New Westminster. She is the author of She Reminds Me of Vermeer, Girls in the Last Seat Waving and Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way.

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