The Dissonant Heart
This slim volume was a collaboration that combined the title poem from My Brother Running—a long poem that derives from the death of McNair's forty-three-year-old brother, who suffered a heart attack that was related to his compulsive running—with photocollages by revered Maine artist Dozier Bell. The book was released in conjunction with a well-received of Dozier Bell’s work at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine’s oldest and largest museum.
“There have been two people in my life who've died of heart attacks—people I've been very close with—and they've made me feel that heart attacks and heart damage are not only physiological things, but psychological and emotional ones. The heart is, after all, the center of the feelings life. So when we want to talk about what most moves us, we use the word 'heart': heart-felt, heart-warming, heart of my heart, and the like. For me, the heart is the most important metaphor in My Brother Running, and its damage and sickness are a sign that something is very wrong for Bob and the culture that helped to create him.”
— McNair quoted by Patricia Lewis, River Review