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Down the Road
to Eternity
by M.A.C. Farrant
Vancouver: Talonbooks,
2009, ISBN 978-0-88922-615-9, 285 pp., $19.95 paper.
BC author M.A.C. Farrant is a familiar name on the Canadian literary scene, and rightly so. She has published nine volumes of short fiction in addition to the memoir My Turquoise Years, which is currently being adapted as a stage play.Her latest book, Down the Road to Eternity, features a dizzying number of stories--53 pieces selected from seven collections, beginning with Sick Pigeon, originally published in 1991, and ending with her 2009 short-fiction suite North Pole. The stories encompass a wide range of issues, including relationships and everyday life.
Many of the stories force us to examine reality in a new way. A satire on the voyeurism in pop culture, "The Compassionate Side of Nature," depicts characters watching a video feed about the hatching of eggs in an eagle's nest. "Spring in North America" pokes fun at panhandlers and reality TV, while "The Heartspeak Wellness Retreat" skewers the practice of feng shui. "Darwin Alone in the Universe" is an illustrated first-person narrative about the angst of contemporary life.
"Do you sense the agitation?" the character Darwin II beseeches us. "It's everywhere, but especially in the cities. The inhabitants there are restless, over-stimulated, desperate to maintain a transient vital energy. They shop, eat, drink, watch videos ravenously . . . Money in their pockets, fulfillment eluding."
One of Farrant's strengths is her playfulness with language. "Hallowe'en So Far Away" contains a wry comment about workplace attire: ". . . the day has been a torture of smallness, folded as we are into three-piece suits. Our bodies cramped, our limbs bonsai'd into awkward shapes." In "The White Satire," the narrator states, "The bride's dress was beautiful. It was made of white satire and flowed about her in an elegant trample."
Farrant also takes an unblinking look at the nuclear family. In "Word of Mouth," the thirteen-part narrative told by a young girl recounts the actions of her abusive mother. The story "Sibylla" portrays a nineteen-year-old welfare mother whose misplaced compassion for an injured pigeon defies her social worker's approval.
Reading the stories in the order in which they are presented allows us to see an evolution in Farrant's style from traditional to postmodern. Unfortunately, the offerings in the last two collections, The Breakdown So Far and North Pole, are uneven. Some feel incomplete--more like writing exercises. These include "What We Need," "Play Button" and "Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You." In the story "Perpetual Coda," Farrant injects a note of cynicism, informing us that "the story, like a basic dream, is the one in which we stand, sit, weep and die; when understanding is frequently accidental . . . where some of us engage in the work of archiving metaphors; where some of us can name at least seven bitter stories that caricature mankind." That said, whatever happened to her enthusiasm for writing fiction?
Undoubtedly, Farrant's latest book demonstrates originality in theme and style. However, the final two sections are a disappointing read that fails to measure up to the remainder of the book.
Bev Sandell Greenberg is a Winnipeg writer and teacher.
Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.