Name: North End Love Songs
ISBN: 9781897289761

Katherena Vermette

An ode to Winnipeg's north end, where Ms. Vermette grew up. It's also the neighbourhood where her Métis brother went missing.

North End Love Songs

Maggie Gordon

North End Love Songs was my bookclub selection this month. Despite a fascinating discussion, I wasn't particularly wowed by the volume. I am not a huge fan of modern free verse poetry, and the poems are structured with awkward line breaks that I found detracted from the work. On the other hand, it won a major Canadian literary award, so the book obviously has merit! It features some powerful observations from a Metis woman who spent her life in a neighbourhood struggling with poverty and marginalisation. One of the central stories is about the death of her brother and the struggles she had with his passing because of the callousness of society towards Indigenous people.