The specific details that create them work, as in good fiction. Bruce with a paper clip in his hair, Miko's pin worn on her shirt that says 'Adventure Girl'. How they talk, even how they write their e-mails. They're nice people who deserve to be happy, and Jenkins unfolds their story with all the pizzazz of a 19th century narrator, without being cornball about it.
Ah, this narrator. He describes kangaroos with affection, and horses. And, of course, clouds. What about under the water? Again, the same gentle touch. "This radiant reef was an arabesque of life/ that knew nothing of separation." (p.25)
I think Jenkins might have been influenced by Shelley, at some early point in his life, because the following passage, on p. 30, is infused by ethereal language, and a yearning towards harmony. He's describing the concept of "atmospheric chemistry". "They are apt/ to what transpires here, where air is sweet with/ brine, and sea meets sky, and clouds are born / of both, moist go-betweens that take their form./ From the elements they mix together and / make sweet commerce." This is lovely, and somehow works amid all the e-mails, highways, conference rooms, and so on": ... I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,/ And out of the caverns of rain,/ Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,/ I arise and unbuild it again" - Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'The Cloud'.
The villains, in this scenario, are wasteful governments and industrial polluters. Unusual worldwide weather patterns are referred to throughout the book, such as long-term drought, winters that are too warm, and so on. "Strip the forests, sell the timber/ to the carbon cycle's harm. It's rake and burn/ the whole world over, and now the weather's warm." (p.47) Imre, the character in this story who comes closest to being a villain, tosses a cigarette butt out of the window of his car ... perhaps setting off a major wildfire. But although Jenkins sets up conflicts between Imre and Bruce at the beginning, Imre as a character needs more work. He never does come to life. And a real blow-up between Bruce and Imre would have been welcome; in fact, I was almost expecting it. But it never does happen.
Let me go on record for saying this is not just a "poet's book;" it's a book that the guys in my husband's office could read. They're all engineers, by the way. And it's nice to see a book that uses scientific terms and concepts in a manner that shows their beauty, and intrinsic worth. So is this book being marketed by its publisher so that "non-poets" can discover it? I certainly hope so.
Jenkins' love of the natural world, expressed in this book, transcends the merely observant and becomes spiritual. Whether it's Uluru or The Blue Mountains, Jenkins' vision is candid, warm, and human.
(Reviewed by Sharon Olinka, March 2004)
