Book Review
Title: She is Reading Her Blanket with her Hands
Author: Sharron Proulx-Turner
Publisher: Frontenac House
ISBN: 978-1-897181-18-8
Released: 2008
$15.95 

4 ½ Stars

Review by Meghan Masterson (Calgary Correspondent - Canada) 

Sharron Proulx-Turner's book, She is Reading her Blanket with her Hands, is an intensely personal and delicately written collection of powerful poetry. Each of her poems is dedicated to someone that Proulx-Turner knows, or knew in the past, and the book itself is dedicated to her mother, which is a good indication of the clear sense of the importance of family and friends in her life. This significance is apparent throughout the book.

The book is full of interconnected themes. Proulx-Turner's memories are intertwined with beautiful descriptions of nature and the animals of the Canadian wilderness. The spiritual meaning of these animals, through Métis culture, is brought to life through her lovely imagery and syntax. The effect of these interconnected themes is very pleasant, and the reader shifts between the two levels of the broader description of nature and its complexity, and the author's personal memories and insights.

Proulx-Turner's writing is very vivid, and her carefully chosen words superbly bring places and colours to the foreground; people and animals alike are brought to life. Whether she is describing something as simple as a ‘black-flowered mug on the floor of a car' or a more complicated image, wrought with meaning, such as ‘there's a song inside the snow / when the sun is there / in the middle of the day / secrets folding themselves / inside & around your eyes,' Proulx-Turner's imagery is very potent.  

Her poems are wrote mostly in lower case letters, which serves to complement the honesty of the words. Proulx-Turner's poetry is sincere, and captures important elements of different cultures. From mixed ancestry (including Mohawk, Algonquin, Ojibwe, French, Scottish, and Irish, to name a few) Proulx-Turner is extremely competent at describing different cultural ideas and blending them into her own insights. Particularly strong are contemporary Canadian and Métis cultures. Proulx-Turner is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and her earnest and beautiful poetry is a tribute to herself and her own history, as well as the history of Canada. She is Reading her Blanket with her Hands is a wonderfully intricate work of poetry that demonstrates a simultaneous awareness of the past, the present, and the future.