Book Review

From Harvey River (2008)

Details Release Date: Mar 11, 2008; Writer: Lorna Goodison; Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction; Publisher: Amistad

Like many of her poetry and story collections, Lorna Goodison's loving ode to her mother and Jamaican homeland, From Harvey River, is imbued with powerful lyrical imagery. (A blown kiss wasn't just caught, it ''floated across the hibiscus hedge, skipped on the flat white river stones...and hopped over the windowsill'' to someone's lap.) Goodison grew up in Kingston and never lived in the river town of the title, which was settled by her English great-grandfather William Harvey. So where did she get this richly detailed history of the place? Why, from a ''book'' her deceased mother gave her in a dream, of course. If only all dreams were so vividly lush. A-

Originally posted Mar 14, 2008 Published in issue #983 Mar 21, 2008 Order article reprints

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