Book Review…Poet recovers after stumbling

Dec 14, 2014 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

Book: Tangled Web of Heather’s Soul
Author: Heather McLean
Reviewer: Tatiana Coy (Ms Coy writes for Dr Glenville Ashby’s Caribbean Literary Guild)

Do you remember when you attended high school and asked to write a journal entry that was not

The Book cover of Tangled Web of Heather’s Soul

graded but only aimed at assessing your knowledge of a particular subject? Usually, your work was hurried with little structure and your goal was to be the first one out the door?
Heather McLean’s ‘The Tangled Web of Heather’s Soul,’ harps back to those nostalgic days. At the outset, McLean offers a cursory, marginal look at some of topical issues.
We learn of her woes and her determination to be a stronger person and prevail against challenges. There is cynical victory in her poems. They yearn for recognition, acceptance, as reflected in “Alone,” where she recalls: “I stared in the mirror and shouted my name. Nobody heard nobody came.”
McLean tackles unrequited love where victims are unaware of the nuances and unpredictability of relationships, only to cast blame on others. In ‘Timid Heart’ she pens, “How can I stop your heart from breaking? Ensure from love you do not hide. How can I stop the pain and aching? And convince you that you are alive. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Forget the pain. And show the world you can love again.”
Here, there is a happy ending to a tortuous tale. Other poems, such as ‘Revelation,’ and ‘My Pain’ follow a similar script. The poems however elicit little emotions and are void of provocative, revelatory insights. One can imagine having that feeling of betrayal, of being alone, and growing up without a parent. Yet these profound emotional experiences are merely explored.
However, it is her feminist approach to life that adds some colour and depth to her work, and may just prove the salvaging element of her undertaking. She ably questions a life where roles are reversed in society. “Where are the men to clean and cook and take care of the household while women study and work on their careers? ‘Quest for a Male Wife’ forays into this hot-button topic. If only men understood. Her words are unequivocal: “So I want a man for a wife. Who will get cut by the kitchen knife? Who will get burnt by hot cooking oil and who will wrap leftover in foil?”
‘The Feet’s Defeat,’ ‘Hear my Hair,’ ‘Ladies of the Night,’ and ‘Name Her,’ address the vacuous and stereotypical perceptions of women in society. In ‘Ghost of a woman,’ McLean writes, “Women have a say in men’s success. But women’s work are rated less. She is very often left behind and has to pretend that this fine.” Arguably, though, it offers very little more than recycling the sometimes trite and worn debate on women’s rights.
McLean plays the theme of the disadvantaged, beaten down woman to the hilt. But she is both, victim and victor, remaining stoic, her womanhood intact. Her work is subjective, personal, as she journeys through her youth and its impact on her present station. This is all well and good, but somewhere along the way, she surrenders originality and creativity; her sheer drive to highlight life’s travails trumping all else, including the quintessential art of poetry.

The Tangled Web of Heather’s Soul
By Heather McLean
Published by Xpress Litho Ltd.
Available: Facebook: Heather Joan McLean

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