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The Hornbooks of Rita K, shortlisted for the Governor General's Award in poetry, is something like a long poem, something like a novel, and something like a work of postmodernist literary criticism. It is not one of Robert Kroetsch's most satisfying works, but it may well be his cleverest and most inventive.
At the heart of The Hornbooks of Rita K is a series of poems by Rita Kleinhart, a reclusive Albertan poet. Rita disappeared in the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art in the early 90s, vanishing from an installation constructed in a darkened room. Her sometime lover, known only as Raymond, has been appointed her archivist, and The Hornbooks of Rita K is largely his book: he presents fragments of her terse, illuminating verses interspersed with his own prose ruminations and snatches of doggerel. At times, Rita and Raymond both fade from the narrative voice and are replaced by a third person who will be familiar to anyone who has read Kroetsch's earlier poetry. The result is the tale of a disappearing writer and relentlessly self-inscribing critic that recalls Carol Shields's Swann and Nabokov's Pale Fire. Kroetsch is a more committed theorist than either of these authors, however, and his textual romance is frustratingly consistent in its enactment of the principles of post-structuralist doctrine. This collection is certainly worth reading for Kroetsch devotees and orthodox deconstructionists; the idly curious should turn to his Completed Field Notes, which offer a bit more genuine satisfaction. --Jack Illingworth
Product Description
The Hornbooks of Rita K, Robert Kroetsch's first volume of new poetry in more than a decade, is a brilliant collection of mysterious fragments. Where has Rita gone and who is reconstructing her oeuvre? Written with wit and playfulness, Hornbooks is a welcome new work from one of Canada's best writers.
