Gritty. Dark. In only 48 hours, sadness and shreds of hope intermingle with the stark realities of life in a B.C. lumber mill camp. A very timely read when we have just honoured our veterans.
Here in B.C. we experience time changes twice a year. For some it disturbs moods or sleep, maybe both. For Art Kenning, this troubling story’s protagonist, his sleep and his moods were disturbed each day and every day. Sounds, smells and events could send him back to Paris, to Holland, to the muck and tragedy of war. Only whisky and opium could give him relief, even while he vowed to stop using both of them. Art is the camp’s medic several years after World War II when he had been a medic in his company. The camp’s boss, Claude Harper had been Art’s commanding officer in World War II. For Art, he had not stopped fighting the war, but his war was memories of his buddies doing despicable things. His war was that he had not stopped them. In the camp, although he lived alone he was the medic for anything that happened at the mill or in the small town, including the rough, tough and motley bunch at the mill barracks. Wang Po, the camp’s cook, who has come to terms with his own war traumas, is a centering figure throughout the story. He tolerates the racism from the men, shares his opium with Art, and is relied upon for calm wisdom. One boy, Joel, who had left his family to see more of the world, arrives in this mill town via rail car almost frozen, but had been saved by a stranger who kept him warm. This world he stumbled into, gave him job but was seldom kind to him, so his struggle was to learn the world with these men - some extremely unpleasant, some kind, some just ordinary men.
Women had ‘their place’ in this microcosm of this small Canadian mill town. Most of them kept quiet, but occasionally one would speak up and then go on about her day. They did not, however, have much voice at all. They experienced severe abuse and neglect, especially Alice, a young First Nations girl. Stolen at age four from the back of a wagon by nuns, Alice had later been sold to the grocer for $50 from a residential school. She was locked up unless she was working in the store. Alice was an extremely vulnerable target for some of the more unsavoury men. Then there was Irene, isolated and abused, lost in her own mind, who died even though Art had stitched her many self inflicted wounds. Her husband, Jim McAllister and his friend, Ernie Reiner, quite literally disposed of her in the dump. This becomes a big part of Art's story and his personal redemption.
I was frustrated as I read the first few chapters of this book full of the details of everything from the leaves on the trees, the sounds of the forests and mill, and the hazy back and forth from war to the present. Aloud, I asked myself ‘Where is the story in this book!?” As soon as I voiced those words, I realized that all this detail that slowed me down, all the back and forth that threatened to confuse me is the story that tells of some of the crueler consequences of war, discrimination and violence. Young men damaged and lost to themselves and the world, but still alive. Woman and children dismissed and abused. Where is the hope in this book? It seemed as fragile at the voice of the women. Easily dismissed. For Art, despite all of his grief and pain, he was the person that was called, confident in his help when tragedy or illness struck. The hope was in Art’s innate kindness and respect for each life that he touched, coming whenever he was called, remembering those in need despite the fog in his head. The hope was that some women were able to speak up whether heard or not. The hope was that the vulnerable found safety and protection from unexpected people.
This was Patrick Lane’s last book prior to his death in March of this year.
“To the men and women who came home from war only to find
the poverty, injustice, inequality, and racism they had fought
so hard to end. It is to their sacrifices we owe our lives.”
~ Patrick Lane (March 26, 1939 - March 09, 2019
(Deep River Night dedication page)
Title: Deep River Night
Author: Patrick Lane
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: McClelland & Steward
Type: Hard Cover
Format: Novel
ISBN: 978-0-7710-4817-3
EPUB ISBN: 978-0-7710-4818-0
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