Scherbenpark by Alina Bronsky

Abstract

^^^^H to him. But turning away from the ^^^^H integral relationships and meshing ^^^^B of stories promised by the frames ^^^^H does not necessarily lead to coherent ^^^^B structure.The pieces are inplace and ^^^^B thereare links,but theoverall effect ^^^^B ismore like an arrangement of dif ^^^^B ferentepisodes than a series united ^^^^B by themes and anxieties. ^HjH W.M. H?gen ^HBH Oklahoma BaptistUniversity JosephBoyden.Through Black Spruce. Toronto / New York. Viking Canada/ Viking.2008/2009. 360 pages. Can$34 / US$26.95. isbn 978-0-670-06363-5 / 02057-7 Dense groves of black spruce over shadow thebusy streetsof Toronto, Montreal, and New York through much of Joseph Boyden's second novel. Through Black Spruce is a meticulously crafted, suspenseful story of an extended family from one of theMushkegowuk Nations living in theJamesBay area ofnorth ern Ontario. Researching sites and people for a novel is standard prac tice for writers today,but Boyden, of Metis background with knowledge ofCree, iswell positioned to capture thevoice of the Mushkegowuk. Through Black Spruce is about fire and ice as well as conifers? about their regenerative as well as destructive powers. It is about life sustaining beaver and goose, martin and moose?and their animal spirits that command respect. Especially evocative in the novel is one narra tor's account of preparing forwinter by James Bay as the cold winds come blowing in. But we come across other, more modern northern tropes, like first-generation skidoos, a World War I rifle, an old-fash ioned bush pilot, and a subsistence economy based on the furtrade and the company store. Tobacco is a sac rament; rye whiskey is survival. The Indian protagonists we come to love, such as Annie and Antoine and Will, reflectBoyden's extraordinary ability toget the read er to suspend disbelief and fully embrace his fictional characters. We can find no redeeming qualities in Marius of the Netmaker clan?a con stant presence in the novel even though his cameo appearances pro vide its greatest drama. One of two love stories we become absorbed in is between Annie and Gordon, a Cree and a Mohawk, respectively, who come from contrasting back woods and urban environments. The other isbetweenWill and Doro thy,high school sweethearts in one of the notorious Christian schools for aboriginals, who only discover theirlove foreach other in theirlater years. At firstit seems sacrilegious to include alongside this JackLondon esque wildnerness tale the venial struggle for survival in the fashion world of Manhattan?a story that takes up much of themiddle sec tions of Black Spruce. But it serves both as morality tale and spoof of the survival struggles of attractive young models who have closets of flattering outfits,designer drugs of many differenteffects,and admiring men in all shapes and colors, who nevertheless careen off on a path of self-destruction. Their lifestyles make a stark contrast to the bare knuckles struggles of FirstNations in remote areas of Ontario who struggle to collect enough food so as to survive through the winter. Boyden excels at narrative design. For example, two of the main characters around which the central plot?involving bike gangs, drug wars, killings, and disappear ances?revolves never emerge in the novel. But they animate the story, and the shadowy figure of one of them, discernable at the end, makes for a satisfying resolution. The novel was awarded the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of Canada's top literary awards. It puts Joseph Boyden in the com pany ofGiller laureates likeMarga retAtwood, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai Richler, and M. G. Vassanji. RayTaras ^^^M Tulane University Alina Bronsky. Scherbenpark. Cologne, Germany. Kiepenheuer & Witsch. 2008. 287 pages. 16.95. isbn 978-3-462 Scherbenpark,a firstnovel, begins with a contradiction: "Manchmal denke ich, ich bin die Einzige in unserem Viertel, die noch vern?nf tigeTr?ume hat. Ichhabe zwei, und f?rkeinen brauche ich mich zu sch? men. Ichwill Vadim t?ten.Und ich will ein Buch ?ber meine Mutter schreiben" (I sometimes think I am the only person in our quarter who still has sensible dreams. I have two, and don't need to be ashamed of either one. I want to...