Driving the Body Back

by Mary Swander

Poems deal with mortality, grief, families, country life, friendship, the past, nature, and memories

Genres: Poetry

81 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1986

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i plucked this book off my shelf while clearing some things out and flipped to a random page and after one poem i flipped to the beginning and read this cover to cover. it’s been so long since a poetry collection pulled me in like this. one of my favorite reads of the year.

[B. Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd seen this book mentioned in one of my other grief books. Swander wrote these family portrait poems as a response to driving the body of her mother a long distance.

I was struck by how familiar the poems seemed to me. Des Moines was mentioned, as well as Hy-Vee, and I realized she must be from the midwest, and that's where the family was located. In the back of the book I learned Swander was born in 1950 in Carroll, Iowa - went to Georgetown and then the University of Iowa and the writer's workshop.

1950 is 7 years before my mother was born. These stories could've been about my own family. They felt familiar and dear, and deeply tragic in the no-nonsense way of rural Iowa. I loved them fiercely.

I want a copy of this book.

[Joy Kidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty and compelling gathering of family episodes, capturing diverse personalities by poignant details. I was especially taken with Aunt Nell.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

RIYL you like rural midwestern deathways