Worst Case Ontario
Jessica Bebenek, JC Bouchard, Dalton Derkson, JM Francheteau, Julie Mannell, 14 pgs, Hurtin’ Crüe Press, hurtin-cruepress.blogspot.ca, sold out
The hardcopy souvenir of a road trip and book tour, Worst Case Ontario is the brainchild of five Ontario-based writers, four poets and a novelist – Jessica Bebenek, JC Bouchard, Dalton Derkson, JM Francheteau and Julie Mannell. On the road for nine days, they read in eight different cities throughout North America. Invitingly, Bebenek launches the chapbook self-referentially with a poem about a poetry reading: “Note: read for: / old men, young girls, little birds, / 10 -15 mins.” Although I didn’t attend any of the readings, I feel included and am listening attentively.
Clearly, these are young voices claiming to inject novelty into a new generation of literature. Many of the poems allude self-consciously to the writers’ literary development. Francheteau includes “a line I’ve tried wedging into several poems.” Bouchard learns “how to speak with rebellion / Carvings in plastic tongues.” Poems foreground the struggle towards and achievement of an individual writing voice, yet while the creative process is key, a new aesthetic product remains undefined. Derkson’s major stylistic coup seems to be his consistent abbreviation of “and” to “nd.”
Mannell’s short story “I Thought I Heard a Dog Crying” – a dismal narrative of leering sexual advance and canine amputees – stands out, not only for being the only prose entry, but also for presenting a geographic sketch of small-town Fonthill, the hometown she often identifies with in her writing, representing and reinforcing Ontario from the chapbook title. Overall, Worse Case Ontario is a strong debut. (Klara du Plessis)