Review
“Mockler can't hide anything in lines this clean and spare. Onion Man delivers a bold, candid voice. It's a book of brave choices. We have a winner in Kathryn Mockler.”—Michael V. Smith
“With Onion Man, Mockler does for the Pillsbury factory what Dante did for hell. But Mockler is funnier. Nearly every piece in this epic, romantic novel-in-verse cracked me up and, like the best comedians, Mockler breaks your heart while she makes you laugh. Her deadpan wit is dead-on and her understated insight is fathoms deep. You've never read a book of poetry like this.”—Sharon McCartney
Product Description
Onion Man is an intense and masterly sculpted series of linked poems set in southern Ontario in the late 1980s—a time in Canada when the recession lay like a lead weight on the shoulders of young people, leaving the future bleak. The poems are told from the point of view of an eighteen-year-old girl working for the summer as a labourer at a corn canning factory, and they follow her relationship with her factory job, her boyfriend, her alcoholic mother, her terminally ill grandfather, and the man who every night “peels an onion and eats it as if it were an apple.” The Onion Man doesn’t speak English and is tormented by the other workers. After his son dies, he commits suicide at the factory, and the girl finds his body. This traumatic event causes her to rethink the direction of her life. This sparse and powerful poetic debut, weaves a tale of heartache, dissolution, and coming of age.
About the Author
Kathryn Mockler teaches poetry and screenwriting at the University of Western Ontario. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and her Honours BA in English and Creative Writing Concordia University. Her writing has been published in Rattling Books, The Puritan, La Petite Zine, This Magazine, Geist, and subTerrain. Her films have been broadcast on TMN, Movieola, and Bravo and have screened at numerous festivals. Originally from London, Ontario, she now resides in Toronto.
