It’s funny to have had Keep by Jenny Haysom fall into my hands (and the publishing schedule) just as I’m contending with my own personal riff on this in the guise of parents and in-laws, looking to downsize or actively downsizing. Less fraught than Haysom’s funny and sad novel, but still, I was primed for a story about moving out and on, and the weight of a lifetime of stuff, particularly as my partner and I sort through boxes of his childhood things which have ended up in our apartment.
Staging team Eleanor and Jacob have a new job with a tight timeline: Harriet is an aging poet who’s recently been diagnosed with dementia, and they need to get her house ready to be sold in a couple of weeks, an impossible timeline. Particularly as Harriet is still living in the house, doesn’t want to be moved out, and is something of a hoarder. A challenging job at the best of times, but as they delve deeper into Harriet’s world, the excavation of her stuff starts to parallel the crumblings in their lives. Eleanor is staring down perimenopause with three daughters, a husband who’s stuck being an adjunct professor, and the weight of too little money, too small of a house, and too much on her shoulders. Jacob, on the other hand, is in a relationship with Yves, who’s never home, and is finally getting his life together so he can go back to school and pursue his real passion — architecture. Unlikely friends and allies against their boss, Harriet’s house ends up being a pivotal moment for them both.
There’s a number of different kinds of stress in Keep, and it’s all handled with tact and care.
Keep is a novel for transition. It’s about different kinds of moving on— the unexpected, the natural shifts, and the ones that gain momentum before you’re ready. Haysom is tender and generous with her characters, even when they’re behaving irrationally or like brats. There’s a number of different kinds of stress in Keep, and it’s all handled with tact and care. This is a book for anyone who needs to sit with and explore their feelings about material objects, and what we do with them, both as we live and as we prepare for the next stage in our lives.
JENNY HAYSOM has published her writing in magazines across Canada. Her debut poetry collection, Dividing the Wayside, won the Archibald Lampman Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Jenny lived in Ottawa for nearly thirty years, on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Algonquin Nation, and has recently returned to Nova Scotia, in Mi’kma’ki, where she grew up.
Publisher: House of Anansi Press (October 1, 2024)
Paperback 5.25″ x 8″ | 280 pages
ISBN: 9781487012427
Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
