Review: The Truth About Roller Skating by Laurie Smith

Something happened when I brought home Laurie Smith's The Truth About Roller Skating. The book vanished from my shelf and reappeared in my mother's hands. It remained there all night until she very reluctantly relinquished it so she could go to bed. I think it is fair to say that it isn't usual form to refer to a collection of poetry as a 'page-turner' but that's exactly what it is.

This collection illustrates a childhood spent in the suburbs of Riverside in the 1960s and 70s. Julie Newmar's cat woman is pitted against Eartha Kit's version (Newmar 1, Kit 0), Zorro makes an appearance as the author's childhood avatar, and new development projects are fiercely resisted with sabotage. The incidents are lively, and steeped in Smith's wry wit. This is what gives the book its magnetism; these are poems courageous enough to laugh, and the laughter is contagious.

Laurie Smith B.Ed., MA., is co-publisher of Cranberry Tree Press in Windsor, a freelance editor, and leads creative writing workshops at Juniper Books. She is the first ever recipient of the Adele Wiseman Poetry Prize, is a two-time winner of the Mayor's Awards of Excellence in the Arts, and has won numerous additional awards for poetry and short fiction. Her other works include gall/stones, One Ninth of a Cat's Life, and Menagerie.

'barbie remodeled' by Laurie Smith, from The Truth About Roller Skating

small tits, big hips
fat-cheeked wide-eyed not a line or
blemish but still falsely haired;
who are we fooling?

himself hairless, curious,
my brother used black marker
to scribble in bush on my dolls, even
adolescent skipper,
and barbie did not get pregnant, though
ken did not sleep in another compartment
but stiffly on top of her in the pink wardrobe case
their eyes open all night

i would still have those staples through my belly,
the disfigurement of paper dolls, the airbrushed
elegance of perks and pearls but barbie at 38
will outlive my dreamhouse, will have g.i. joe and
spiderman perverting her if ken is unavailable
and she will not decompose, left out in the sandbox.

i too have been chewed by dogs; i have been
packaged, dressed,
stripped, decapitated, envied, ridiculed
- yet i still do love
all the new clothes.

Laurie Smith will be holding a book signing of The Truth About Roller Skating at Chapters at Devonshire Mall tomorrow, April 22nd, from 1 to 4.

The Truth About Roller Skating is available for $14.95 at the following retailers:

Juniper Books
U of W Bookstore
The Sugar Shack
Bergeron Art and Frame