Jim McLean's new poetry collection, Nineteen Fifty-Seven, is much more than a look at Prairie life after World War II - with sections on Women, Family, Memories, Work, Writing and Music - these poems are an exploration on what makes life worth living. In plain language, McLean weaves fascinating, sentimental images of Moose Jaw and the Prairie landscape, as well as stories of workers and the railroads. At the same time, McLean creates a separate persona to move in an out of darker poems on death, suicide, alcoholism and voyeurism. Through poems such as "my brother, who I looked out for when we were kids", "aurora borealis, southern Saskatchewan, 1972" and "about MacKay", McLean delves into the heart of humanity: what keeps us alive, and what shapes our past, present, and future.
