I was lucky enough to be asked to write a reader’s report for The Book Council of Wales. I read Jim Neat, a wonderful memoir, over a Scottish weekend camping in these recent storms and couldn’t put it down! There’s a poem within that Jim wrote about his brother-in-law suffering shell-shock which I can’t stop thinking about. It’s called The Nape of My Brother-in Law’s Neck; it’s incredible and I think it should be included in an anthology of war poetry. Jim’s character feels so alive. It’s such a GOOD book, folks - one of my TOP reads this year. I hear a film AND a stage play are in the pipeline – huge congrats to Mary J. Oliver, so well deserved. Jim would be proud! 

This extraordinary book fascinated me from the moment I picked it up and, glancing through, felt it was like one of my own intimate sketchbooks, with each page giving greater status to the whole. 
But I was unprepared for such a shocking story. How could anyone have such a hard life and keep going? The poetic accounts of what Jim did or did not do, page by page, stand alone; alternatively they can be read as part of a unique historical record.

The intensity of the narrative, distressing as well as informative, held my undivided attention. I could hardly put it down and read it in a few days.

I am the amazed reader of Jim Neat. I’ve read it twice, the second time in one sitting. What an incredible work of love, imagination, respect and repair. I was very touched by Jim’s difficult, brave endurance, as he is assailed by every test of harsh reality. Here his poet daughter works the scant yet extraordinary facts, & weaves them into a work that gets to the bones & questions what it is to live.

I was touched by the flavour of the particular with which Mary J.Oliver imbues the narrative of Jim Neat, his times, her times, our times. It is an epic and beautiful work, leaving me charmed and haunted.

It’s been some while since I have read a book from cover to cover without being able to put it down. In Mary J. Oliver's Jim Neat, I found myself absorbed to the point of pausing all incoming communications. I followed Jim's story - a narrative that seamlessly glides through episodic instalments, confessional poetry, case history, letters, unsent postcards, diary entires, pioneer archives and judicial injustices that contribute to both the man, and a life that is quite extraordinary. Mary’s research and writing of the book took over 10 years, and her ability to condense the narrative down to 145 pages is quite remarkable. The text flows with the ease of a novel, while all the while one is reading fact after heart-wrenching fact as the most uncanny events push Jim into circumstances that the majority of us would not recover from. His enduring ability to bounce back is staggering, and lies in his passion, honesty, and a belief that 'true love' must be protected at all costs. Buy this book, read it, and you will not be be disappointed. If anything, you will be left wanting to know more.

Jim Neat travels the real life journey as excavated by his daughter, artist and poet, Mary J. Oliver, in this courageous and intimate book. Its prose and poetry, alongside photographs and sketches, place a life in the context of its time, beginning with Neat’s incarceration, to World War 2 and then on to the poet’s own surprising journey. 

A tale of a daughter’s search for her dead father’s past could be enough for any reader but it becomes quickly apparent that this journey is just as much about disclosing truths as it is about erasure.  Letters carefully edited with strike-through texts reveal the bleak and often painful realities of its time not just withheld from family and friends but from the self.  Details unfold chronologically with frequent flashbacks that flow like an epic film.  When Neat’s brother-in-law arrives home from WW1 "eyes bulging, arms, legs, head jerking, he can’t get out of the front door, scuttles on all fours behind the settee, mouth opening, shutting, opening," Neat’s sister advises, "Best you go on home, Jim" and in those few lines we see the toll of war from multiple perspectives. 

Characters appear and disappear, some with lives so brutally marred by their times your heart will break open and then mend itself again as the book moves through Neat’s life contrasting the dark corners of human history with the joys of love and the passion of a man who reinvents himself in every chapter. 

There’s a Dr. Fletcher, one of the heroes of Neat’s life who through the profound and patient methods of creating a safe space for Neat at Whitby Hospital to unburden his trauma through gentle conversation, writing and meaningful work creates a haven without drugs or forced treatments and an opportunity for transformation. 

There’s Queenie, Neat’s sister and lifelong friend whose own colourful personality leaps into the frame and stays alongside other key figures as Neat’s life unfurls. 

Because Neat’s mind and depth of perception convey his own experiences without pretence and Oliver’s sensitive and sculpted prose and poetry know just where to take off and where to land, you will find yourself slowly turning Jim Neat’s pages back and forth as you live each sorrow and joy of this astonishing and lasting work.   

Lois P. Jones, author of Night Ladder & poetry editor of Kyoto Journal

Mary J Oliver’s father passed away in 1983, but it isn’t until twenty-five years later that a spark ignites inside the author, urging her to find out who her elusive father was. She embarks on a journey that takes her to a whole other continent as she retraces Jim Neat’s footsteps. It takes her ten years of research to compile an extensive collection of letters and documents that, together, make up this remarkable story.

This uncategorisable 'novel', often labeled as a memoir, is an exceptional piece of literature – a continuous confessional poem, perhaps, that takes on various shapes and forms. Its full title, Jim Neat: The Case of a Young Man Down on His Luck hints at the contents as it opens with a case file from 1935 when Jim is admitted to Whitby Psychiatric Hospital in Toronto. Separated into three parts, the first, Inmate, gradually unfolds Jim’s life, from his family home to sailing the Atlantic and settling down in Canada. Seeking success in North America, he sees it as a ‘promised land’ but is quickly disillusioned by the current state of the country:

I’ve been in and still going through absolute hell, in and out of this place more times than I can count. / It will be hard for you to understand how tough a place this country can be.

The one true happiness Jim experiences while in Canada is with Lizbietta; however, she soon dies in childbirth and their newborn daughter is given away for adoption. This drives Jim over the edge, resulting in heavy use of narcotics and trouble with the law. All of this is conveyed through multiple letters and poems, as Dr Fletcher’s case files guide the reader through Jim’s condition and subsequent recovery.

Encouraged to write, Jim slowly starts to open up, no longer suppressing his past trauma. The poem ‘The Homecoming 1935’ retraces the steps that lead to his hospitalization. Told in a frantic voice, interrupted by the multitude of commas that slice up thought process, it is the first time the reader is exposed to the truth of Jim’s trauma:

I get back to Saskatoon with $80 in my pocket for Lizbietta but she is dead, it’s 40 degrees, the curtains are drawn, she died five days ago, Valentyna tells me, we buried her by the river, tuberculosis, post-partum hemorrhage, I don’t know, I don’t know….

During his time in Whitby, Jim recovers and finds a new meaning in life, deciding he must live in remembrance of Lizbietta (‘Murdered Lad of Penge’). He develops a relationship with his fellow inmate, Frank Schofield, and helps him reunite with his presumed-to-be-dead wife. Jim also helps Dr Fletcher’s wife find a new meaning to her life after suffering because of the stillborn death of her baby. Through his newfound determination, Jim becomes a beacon of hope for others.

The second part, War, details the story of how Jim and Kate (Oliver’s mother), met. Through Kate’s diary entries, the reader finds out about Jim’s new life in England against the backdrop of WWII. The postcards he sends home create a stark contrast to the war effort as he infuses them with love for his wife and family. This part is proof of Jim’s metamorphosis from a ‘hobo’ to a man determined to live.
Oliver inserts her own accounts of her father in the third part, Found. Here she outlines her memories of Jim in a series of documents, sketches, diary entries and poems, etc, all laced with an array of complex emotions as she begins the journey of deciphering this mysterious figure she called her father:

I hatch a plan. To solve this enigma of my father. His absence in the past. His sudden presence in my life now.

Oliver states that some of the materials have been re-written or completely fabricated in order to fit the narrative; however, those adjustments blend so seamlessly into the memoir that it is impossible to discern what has been altered – Jim’s story reads as authentic and true, regardless of any changes that might have come about during the structuring process.

This unique memoir shows the remarkable life of an ordinary man, proving that each life can be made extraordinary. Jim Neat is a man who has undergone many a trial in life, as well as many joys. He has had a powerful impact on the people he’s met along the way – something he will undoubtedly continue to do so through this book that has immortalized his unique spirit.