Its games with language and its exploration of a crisis in faith in the contemporary world were the qualities that incited Billingham's (Canadian studies, U. of Nottingham) interest in Nichol's
(1944-88) long poem The Martyrology , published in nine books between 1972 and 1990. She approaches it from the perspectives of the language trap, inscription versus invocation, the poem as
journal and as necessary fiction, the fasting sequence, saints alive, myths of divination, and taking the world on faith. She includes primary and secondary bibliographies, and a list of leaf
numbers to help mitigate the fact that he refused to number his pages. The text here is double spaced. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
