Nuclear Family (Volume 68) (The Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series)

Violent events, both global and familial, permeate a girl’s coming of age. Jean Van Loon’s father was a metallurgist in an Ottawa lab that contributed to the Manhattan Project. Unbeknownst even to the family, her mother worked for Canada’s Cold War intelligence service. Rooted in memory and history, Loon carries the reader into the sense of impending nuclear doom and the material wealth that shaped the poet’s childhood. Cover 1 Copyright 7 Contents 10 Hiroshima, After 14 A Man of Few Words 16 They Came 18 Fusion 23 Jane’s Birthday, July 16, 1945 24 Sun Valley Snow Boots 25 Sahtu Lake 27 A rock is a rock is a rock 30 New Brother 31 Ipana 32 Jane Helps Check the Lab 34 Suppertime 35 Big Pile 37 Knucklebones 39 Fission 41 Drill 43 Cipher Clerk 44 Crowned 46 Plunder 47 Fallout (i) 48 Move into New 50 Fallout (ii) 52 Father Lore 53 Carnauba, Queen of Waxes 54 Testing, Testing ... 55 Titles 57 Australian Tails 58 God Will Not Be Mocked 60 Fallout (iii) 61 Verge 63 Son and Father 64 Cold Comfort 65 aftershocks 66 What the New Widow Tells Her Nine-Year-Old Son 68 What the New Widow Tells Her Eleven-Year-Old Son 69 Death Talk 70 The Perfumed House 72 Last Wrongs 73 Chinese Food 74 A Kindness 75 Dear Sir: 77 Dark Corners 79 Widow’s Midnight 80 Morality Play 81 Alchemy 82 Eden 84 Gotta Get Out of This Place / Can’t Get No ... 86 Phoenix 87 Learning You, Dad, from the Wrong End of Time 89 Remembering with Dick 92 Turning Leaves 94 Good Job 95 Peopling the Night 96 Remembering with Teddy 97 Airwaves 99 From Port Radium 100 Notes and Acknowledgments 102 Jean,Van,Loon,2022,ISBN,978-0-2280-1115-6,(paper),ISBN,978-0-2280-1355-6,(ePDF),ISBN,978-0-2280-1356-3,(ePUB) Jean Van Loon 2022,ISBN 978-0-2280-1115-6 (paper),ISBN 978-0-2280-1355-6 (ePDF),ISBN 978-0-2280-1356-3 (ePUB) In the night her whitened toes / cold sole on his calf / between his palms he warms / a slender foot – / twig bones, taut skin. Jean Van Loon's father was a metallurgist in an Ottawa lab that contributed to the Manhattan Project. The Geiger counter he brought home exposed her mother's dinner plate as radioactive. Her childhood friend's father sold cobalt bombs to the Soviet Union. Unbeknownst even to the family, her mother worked for Canada's Cold War intelligence service. Rooted in memory and history, Nuclear Family carries the reader into the sense of impending nuclear doom and the explosions of material wealth that shaped Van Loon's childhood. Poems come alive with image, sound, and texture, portraying the innocence of childhood games, the worldwide effects of prolonged nuclear testing, and the long-lasting legacy of her father's suicide – a fallout of radioactive silences. In Nuclear Family violent events, both global and familial, permeate a girl's coming of age in a story of cataclysm and, ultimately, recovery. "Jean Van Loon's father was a metallurgist in an Ottawa lab that contributed to the Manhattan Project. The Geiger counter he brought home exposed her mother's dinner plate as radioactive. Her childhood friend's father sold cobalt bombs to the Soviet Union. Unbeknownst even to the family, her mother worked for Canada's Cold War intelligence service. Rooted in memory and history, Nuclear Family carries the reader into the sense of impending nuclear doom and the explosions of material wealth that shaped Van Loon's childhood. Poems come alive with image, sound, and texture, portraying the innocence of childhood games, the worldwide effects of prolonged nuclear testing, and the long-lasting legacy of her father's suicide - a fallout of radioactive silences. In Nuclear Family violent events, both global and familial, permeate a girl's coming of age in a story of cataclysm and, ultimately, recovery."-- Provided by publisher