J. ROBINSON

story becomes great when its
readers can relate to what is
being told—whether they relate

to the character or the event does not
matter. It is the connection made

 

between two different perspectives, two
different realities, that shows the
strength of a tale. And it is the
strength of emotion evoked in the
reader that determines how great the
story is. In addition, having finished

   
 
  

about one person and their perspective
on living in a “distinct society”; where
each person has the freedom to be an
individual, separate from their family,
friends and class. For example, an
unnamed Chinese girl in “Yellow and
White’ writes back home to her family:

My life-to-be in Montreal was revealed to
me by a store, a store like an archipelago of
overpopulated islands whose thick crowds are
made up of objects instead of living beings, a
store with a strange name that gives no hint of
its contents: Canadian Tire...

by a Québécois writer all mine the
same vein, separation and distinct cul-
ture, but what is never fully explored is
the relationship between Quebec and
the rest of Canada, It is the rest of the
world that Quebec relates to, and not
other Canadians.

Proulx’ stories are interesting pic-
tures with nothing inside to connect
my West Coast sensibilities to what it
is to be a Canadien. The stories don’t
even haye that irrational, egotistical
pride natives express towards those

 

the story the
reader ought to
walk away from
the text with
some clear idea
of what the
writer is saying.
Tt isn't the
message itself
that is

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

Aurora Montrealis v.

South of No North: Stories of a Buried Life
‘Monique Proulx v. Charles Bukowski
Douglas & McIntyre v. Black Sparrow

who are “from
away’; “My city
could kick your
city’s ass” sort of
stuff. Instead,
I've been reading
some Charles
Bukowski, for
example a collec-
tion of his short

 

 

meaningful, it’s
that the writer has touched the reader
with a clear and passionate voice, and

   
 
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
 
 
   
 
  
  
  
 
   
 
  

that voice has been understood.
Occasionally a writer tries to be
clever, and leaves their point unclear,
hoping that the reader will be left puz-
zling over the point of the story and
make their own decision on what it
was all about. When that works, it
works very well. More often it just
eans the writer hasn't properly devel-
ped their story. And that, my friend,
is the sad state of affairs we'll be
ploring: How to write an effective
tory and how to tell when you've just
ead a bad one.
Rereading the stories in Aurora
ontrealis, I am hard-pressed to find
ything that is indicative of the book
a whole. While the book has a run-
ing theme, with each story highlight-
ng an individual in search of their
lace in Québécois society, all the
ocus on the individual creates an
bsence of unity. Each short story is

The things in this store, Grandmother, are in
aisles wider than a small street, extend farther
than the eye can see and would climb right up to
heaven if the ceiling weren't in the way....they
all look the same, and the more you try to dis-
tinguish one from another, the more they multi-
ply and hide and melt together into one single
enormous object with an infinite number of
parts and no discernible use.

Now I am alone, Grandmother, like a real
human being. No one shows me the way in
store aisles or in life, no one puts a protective
hand on my shoulder to approve or reject my
decisions. Like the customers at Canadian Tire,
I go directly where I believe I need to go, with-
out waiting for support, and I am capable of
walking past the overflowing shelves without
buying anything. At first it’s not easy to recog~
nize, but this is freedom, that painful and mag-
nificent thing called freedom.

Her new life is explained against her
expectations from her old life.
However, comparing Montreal to
Beijing doesn’t mean a thing to those
that have experienced neither of these
cultures. The stories in this anthology

stories called South of No North. Here the
emphasis on the individual is a benefit.
His characters have unique identities,
showing the individual as more signifi-
cant than where they're from, or where
they are. The place we're from, and
what culture we're part of, shapes our
attitudes and beliefs. It isn’t true, how-
ever, that we are inseparable from these
places. (Or, at least, I hope not.)
When we leave a place we are taint-
ed by it, but a person is not defined
solely by where they're from. A person
is additionally defined by how they
behave. The more extreme the behav-
iour, the clearer that person becomes.
Mind, it can go the other way, with the
person becoming the behaviour and
not being anything other than the cari-
cature they present, which is not t
case with either of these writers.
Proulx’ characters are developed m
by their setting than by their own
actions, and that’s
characters are more
characters are more low-

..and profit August 1998