Book Review: Bookends of Life by Sonja Koch and Dalys Finzgar

Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas

A spirited and affectionate call to meaningful living through empathy and attention to nature

Sonja Koch lives with her husband and their many animals on a heavenly piece of land in Southern Ontario, surrounded by calmness and nature. In Bookends of Life, she urges us to live in peace with ourselves and to connect meaningfully with the nature that surrounds each one of us.

The title page of Bookends of Life lists another author next to Koch, one Dalys Finzgar, who is the writer’s young granddaughter. The book was inspired by her, and many of the poems act as advice to the young lady. Some poems are written in the first person from the girl’s perspective, but when we read the warnings about talking to strangers and staying away from dubious websites, we can’t help but hear the voice of a worried grandmother. Most of the poems, however, are instructive not just to Dalys but to everyone.

Koch invites the reader to openness, compassion and adventure. Her encouragements are full of a conspicuous vigor, which is enhanced technically by her more than occasional use of the energetic quatrain:

“The love, the peace amidst the rush
And stress of daily living
Is there for all who choose to see
The loving and the giving.”

This kind of calling to empathy and relaxation characterizes the whole book. Not an idle relaxation but one made vibrant by creativity and focus on all the important things: kindnesses to others as well as to oneself and a connection to nature.

Koch writes about animals she has experience with, like alpacas and horses, and uses the age-old device of seeing and living things through their bodies. More interestingly, in the beautiful poem entitled “To My Sister, Nancy,” she wishes she could travel as a feather on a wing.

The author finds meaning in both fauna and flora, as she describes with gratitude the trees surrounding her, which she calls the skyline of her life. Comfort derives from constancy, and perhaps this is what indifferent nature provides. But as our species has changed the climate, one can’t help but feel uneasy at the author’s expression of her belief in the unbreakable cycle of the seasons.

This very sprightly book loses a bit of its energy in some poems lacking structure and rhythm, which are a minority. And as much as some readers will love Koch’s occasionally magical language, with cameos from sprites and fairies, others may not be used to it. It is not intrusive, however, and it will add color to the reading experience of even the staunchest skeptic. As per the title of a poem, it’s not so much witchcraft as it is wishcraft.

The book is at its most endearing whenever Koch refers to her granddaughter and herself as the maiden and the crone, and at its most effortlessly relatable with the tiny poem exalting the gift that is tea. Bookends of Life is written with an elfin feeling and uplifted spirit. It is a genial manifesto for creative, earthly non-conformity and attentiveness to all that is truly great in life.

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