Kelly recently enjoyed Writer's Trust finalist Through the Garden. It's a moving memoir about poet Lorna Crozier's long relationship with fellow poet Patrick Lane. Here is Kelly's review:

Through the Garden is Lorna Crozier’s latest non-fiction book. Better known as a poet, Crozier and long- time partner and fellow poet Patrick Lane have won multiple awards for their many works. This book is not about the awards or accolades that they’ve earned but of the life they shared together until Patrick’s death two years ago. It is also much about how Crozier felt she could possibly go on without him when he was gone.  

Crozier and Lane had a sometimes tempestuous relationship. She details them fighting through their poetry. One would lash out, there would be a poetic response and the cycle would continue. A dinner party with friends didn’t go to plan and both of them left their guests to fend for themselves. That they had a passionate relationship is clear on a more positive side as well. As Patrick’s health declines Crozier shares her anticipatory grief. While she may not miss these more difficult times she will miss the small moments of daily life with him. She wonders what her future will hold. Is she the same person without him?

She writes beautifully of the cats they loved, emotionally of Patrick’s struggle with addiction and the challenges that they encountered, and almost reverently of Patrick’s love of gardening and nature. This is an unflinching and intimate look at the relationship of a couple. A couple who are deeply in love, passionate about each other, and going through the decline and changes in another stage of life. Peppered with poetry from each of them, both their voices are alive in this small volume. This is a book about a love story. How does the story change when one partner is gone?

Books that might be of interest after reading this book would be any of Lane or Crozier’s poetry, Patrick Lane’s There is a Season where, in part, he describes his love of nature and his own past, Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast by Crozier and Lane which is a collection of essays from NA writers about addiction, and Art and Rivalry by Carol Bishop-Gwyn which details the lives of artists Mary and Christopher Pratt and the struggles that sometimes come to creative types.

Reserve Through the Garden here.

Check out Kelly's other picks here.