[.ca] Midnight in the Guest Room (ISBN 0972898409)

For women, mostly:
I read a review for A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood that called it a "woman's novel", and I bristled instinctively at the use of gender labeling on a work of art. But on reading Atwood's work, I had to admit that it was an accurate assessment. Her imagery sank deeply into that illusive yet definitive part of me that is woman, not man. Jan's poetry affected me in much the same way. There were times when that assessment narrowed even more to that instinctual yet learned essence that is mother. As I read, I felt the tell-tale closing tension of my throat, followed by the creeping heat of societal shame at mid-day tears on a cleaning afternoon. Four words and an image so strong, so clear, so real, that she took me years away from my chair. Jan's poetry needs to be appreciated as much for their line-by-line beauty as for their totality; and while even a man may see the beauty, a woman will feel it. A mother will relive it.