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29 July 2010  About The Fist of Remembering "The Fist of Remembering is a series of poems meditating on the death of Nason's partner, plus a long love poem to both his lover and himself. the poems are short and tight, though the language is accessible. Nason details the ordinary into a magical essence, eloquently confronting cancer with equal measures of helplessness and strength. Wolsak and Wynn has an eye for talent ... the rich imagery gets under your skin, emanating the terror of losing a loved one, and going on afterward. Nason has honed his poems into tight bundles that unfold like grief: unexpectedly, relentlessly and with strange moments of delight." Sandra Alland, XTRA! Magazine
John Ashbery: “Jim Nason’s short, fierce, taut poems confront, over and over, the horror and mystery of a lover dying of cancer. Hating his survivor’s eloquence, but using it, he achieves something like revenge against the forces of darkness.” Maureen Scott-Harris: “The Strength of Jim Nason’s the Fist of Remembering is its fidelity – to the dying and dead lover, to grief and the time it takes, and to the sweet details of the living world which slowly reclaim attention. With telling images, and phrasing which reflects the shifting motions of grief, Nason offers us an opportunity to learn how to face the unbearable and bear it. These are poems from a writer who sees both that terrible space “at the edge of no person” and the “[r]ed and yellow tulips along the fence.”
“Jim Nason’s (the)Fist of Remembering is a brave and poignant look at love and death as the narrator bears witness to the slow painful death of his lover. Sometimes elegiac, sometimes rhapsodic, the reader is taken through a labyrinth-like psychological journey that captures the “filthy lake[s]” and other city-scape images of Toronto. The Fist ..reads like a psalm as Nason deploys arresting images and observations about death and the spiritual crisis that often follows death and loss. Indeed, the “fist” is the focal point of this spiritual crisis, something that both implodes and explodes with grief and an often-time sexual energy that is bold, flirtatious, and witty. But as we see in the lyrical section, “April,” Nason assures us that even with the deepest losses, there are glimmers of hope and renewal as the narrator exhilaratingly declares, “ah! Stars.” The Fist of Remembering delves into the toughest metaphysical question of all – how to cope with the loss of a loved one – and unfailingly succeeds in its depth, beauty, and uncompromising honesty.”
About The Housekeeping Journals "Powerful tour through world few will experience." - Bob Armstrong,Winnipeg Free Press
“Jim Nason writes like an angel of the underworld. His novel, The Housekeeping Journals, is the place where Marie Claire Blais meets Ann Landers – Mrs. Neatson’s advice for domestic bliss is a leit motif/ amusement. Gender reversals, turns of dialogue, addiction and death; but somehow the colourful personae still laugh and, above all, tolerate and love each other. One feels great empathy for Tony, who dons latex gloves to fulfill his job caring for those who have been cast off by others. His determination to learn about his past through an understanding of the world he works in is sometimes reckless but always heartbreakingly sincere. Every word counts, images resound, directness of speech move the reader forward. One presses one’s face against the salty wisdom of brilliance – grateful and wiser.”
Elisavietta Ritchie is a teacher, writer, and photographer. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the Sorbonne in Paris (French literature, Russian and English), she has lived in Toronto and presently lives in Washington, DC. Her books include: Raking the Snow, Tightening the Circle Over Ed County, The Arc of the Storm and Elegy for the Other Woman. Recently, Ritchie’s In Haste I Write This Note won the premiere Washington Writer’s Publishing House Fiction award. Flying Time: Stories and Half Stories includes four PEN Syndicated Fiction winners.
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