Blood Relations
Sometimes memory warps cobbling together a host of images leaving the self embellished by the past.
The poems in this collection are an evocative documentation of the harrowing experiences of a child living in a hostile and unhappy home. The reader is shown the pain, the bitterness and the mixed emotions that accompany the experiences of growing up in a family torn apart by domestic violence and alcoholism.
Memory is tested by remembering what one does not want to remember. Bearing witness was unbearable.
2000 | ISBN 9781875559985 | Paperback | 200 x 130 mm | 108 pp
Reviews
...only a language 'scoured' of artifice and sentimentality can encompass the experiences of Blood Relations.
–Jennifer Strauss
Sandy Jeffs' poems inhabit the darkness at the heart of the dysfunctional family. The ravaged emotionality of these poems will speak to anyone who has felt its pain.
–Doris Brett
Sandy Jeffs depicts the terrible, violent relationship between her parents and ts effect on her... her spacing, timing and self editing are superb, creating disciplined intensity which many readers will find impressive and cathartic, reinforced by the work's wider social dimensions.
–Jennifer Maiden, Australian Book Review
At last a poetry book I can read that speaks to my experiences. Thank you Sandy for breaking the silence! on a topic that is widespread but noone ever talks about it. This books invites you into the harrowing world of domestic violence and alcholism with poetry that is both accessible and evocative.
–Amazon Customer