Jim Neat

by Mary J. Oliver

ISBN: 9781781725146

Published: 2019

Mary J. Oliver's debut is an unusual and striking coalescing of prose, poetry, found documents and photographs. It ranges across the history of 20th century England and Canada as she uncovers the life of her father, Jim Neat (b. 1904). She adopts a legal structure, making 'the case' for the worth of Jim's life. Jim leaves England at an early age, as a seaman. He travels to South Africa, stows away to Australia and eventually lands in Canada at the time of the Great Depression. He meets his partner Lizbietta at a bookshop in Saskatoon, but is working in Regina when she dies in childbirth. As a result, Jim becomes both ill and destitute, and is admitted to a hospital in Ontario. His story is told at this point through the hospital's case-notes, his own therapeutic writing and his doctor's correspondence with his sister Queenie, in England. Repatriated to England Jim meets the author's mother during the war. Theirs is a stormy marriage, and at this point she too contributes to the...