A YEAR OF LAST THINGS Poems

It's always informative, at the least, to hear a poet's own readings of his work--even if those are not always the most evocative or entertaining renditions. Michael Ondaatje's poetry is quite fine; an earlier collection won the Governor General's Literary Award (Canada). But his performance of these works, alas, does not do them justice. The poems return again and again to historical and personal memory, but other themes appear as well. Forms and lengths vary, too. The author's voice, sadly, does not vary much. It is not quite a monotone, but the ranges of volume, tone, and pace are too narrow to serve the text well. The very short times between the poems can also make it hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2024]