An extended review of a 2025 novel in verse by Daniel Cowper
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McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025. 208 pages. $25 (ebook $25)
Daniel Cowper is a poet who lives on Bowen Island, B.C. His new book follows the story of several fictional characters including a young couple on the cusp of wedded bliss, a struggling artist threatened with eviction from her apartment, a gambler who listens to his vices to his detriment, a grandfather eager for the safe arrival of a grandchild and a businessman who selfishly leaves his colleagues destitute to pursue a life of luxury.
It is a narrative about people who are rich, poor and in between, and their different choices and fates. It reminded me of the movie Magnolia with disparate stories converging (though not all of the characters’ narratives cross over into each other). Similarly, the story has grounded and complex people who are flawed and flailing, trying their best to cope with life’s difficulties and retain (or find) a sense of dignity in the process.
Themes circle around ability to deal with tragedy, the hope of new life as danger hovers, aspirations that go awry, and love longed for or lost.
The author is especially good at using words to weave the reader into the hearts and minds of each person, helping to manufacture the mind pictures of the environments they all reside in or pass through. The rhythm of the verses helps you to feel what is happening as much as you are absorbing the information. Care and concern grow for each person as they live through their highs and lows in a fairly realistic fashion.
As the story proceeds, it becomes clear there are consequences and ripple effects for how one carries oneself. The weight of desire, in many ways, draws some into the light while others fade into darkness.
The stories intertwine with questions and ruminations about religion, faith, perseverance, forgiveness, mercy and grace. In anxious moments, characters seek after God’s favour or presence.
Overall the characters seem subject to the mercies of the Kingdom, as if the city itself is somewhat merciless and cold, favouring no one.
While there is not a main antagonist, there is one character in particular who readers will disdain, although his actions aren’t malevolent as much as they are rooted in hedonistic ends. He appears above the effects of the Kingdom, enjoying the material benefits of his position. Another character fails to cope with despair and instead finds themself with no other alternative but to do the unthinkable.
The author adeptly pulls back the curtain on the insecurities of those who find themselves subject to the system and details their efforts to remain mentally and spiritually afloat even as they are deluged with threats both real and concocted or if they are contending with past mistakes.
Kingdom of the Clock has mature themes, situations and language. It is at times heartwarming and inspiring while it is also crass and sad. For some, it will be seen as an accurate reflection of real life with its ups and downs, its hopes and its fears.
For others, it could serve to make them pause, consider the world outside their front door and reflect on the lives of others who reside neighbours, perhaps different in ethnicity, identity and social status but all aiming to use their lifetime to elevate themselves and their loved ones above simply trying to get by.
The book does wrap up the various narrative strands running throughout. For some characters, the end is a promise of a brighter and more hopeful tomorrow while for others their climax arrives with results that cost them dearly.
Beside the movie Magnolia, I’m also left thinking of a song from the Rolling Stones called “Time Waits for No One.” It would be a fitting soundtrack to this book, in which we are made to consider that our stories will not stop time, but within time our stories can be meaningful, important and consequential.
One of the lyrics of the song says, “The dreams of the night will vanish by dawn.” However, those dreams only vanish when we fail to properly use the minutes given to us.
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