Some Sort of Life - Naomi Beth Wakan

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Saturday, April 12th, 2014
2:00 PM

"Memory lies. It�s not its fault; that is just the way the mind works. If one asks for a memory, or whether the memory floods in on its own, either way it comes to light clipped and trimmed as a topiary bush, presenting the worst, or the best, but definitely only a partial viewing of a past event. Memories may come sporadically like a dripping tap, or in one big mess, like a broken egg, leaving you the necessity of reconstructing Humpty-Dumpty as it were, trying to piece it all back together again.�

So says essayist, and inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo, Naomi Beth Wakan, about this book of her memoirs, Some Sort of Life. She reports that this collection of essays and poetry is neither a record of a heroic journey, nor an account of dismal failure; as befits a supporter of the middle way, Naomi�s memoirs lie somewhere in between. She describes them as 'slantwise,' not quite zeroing in on the target, approaching incidents from unusual angles. Still, the �unusual� acts in a way to move her very personal moments into moments that everyone can share. In Some Sort of Life Naomi�s one story, (for after all don�t we all have only one story to tell?) is that life is bittersweet and definitely ephemeral.