The Bone Cage

By Angie Abdou
Newest Press, 2007

By Pat Mackenzie

Ln Bone Cage, Angie Abdou’s
first novel, follows the lives of fictitious
Olympic hopefuls Sadie Jorgenson and
Tom “Digger” Stapleton. The novel
focuses primarily on the rigors of their
training as the two athletes (Sadie is a
speed swimmer and Digger is a wrestler)
prepare for the 2000 Olympics in
Sydney.

Abdou, a competitive
swimmer herself, certainly has _first-
hand knowledge of the privations of
training. She captures
the physical and mental
strain that Sadie and
Digger must endure

“Abdouw’s descriptions,
while vivid and accurate,
with a fair degree of are to be lacking in any

session, Abdou fills out her story with
detours from the main athletic narrative.
For example, Sadie’s life in the pool is
juxtaposed against that of her family,
specifically that of her grandmother who
is languishing in a hospital—a victim of
adult onset diabetes and the ravages of old
age. The comparison between the youth
and strength of Sadie and the failing
health and body of her grandmother will
be obvious and superficial to some. But
to be fair, it is in the tension between
youth and age and the limited time we
all live under where
Abdou is able to pull
her story out of the
plodding _—_ chronicles
of Sadie and Digger

writerly acumen. But as real drama.” and their strict training
a former competative schedules and give her
athlete, I know that novel some life.

besides being physically and mentally It is not as if Abdou has
difficult, training for any athletic written carelessly about her two main

discipline can be intensely boring. As
I worked my way through The Bone
Cage, I found Abdou’s descriptions of
training and competition, while vivid
and accurate, to be lacking in any real
drama. But I do not think this is the fault
of Abdou’s abilities as a writer; rather, I
think it is a general flaw found in most
sports writing. The problem being, that
sports writing, whether journalism or
fiction, in the absence of real drama,
artificially tries to create importance out
of what is, in the end, unimportant.
Perhaps anticipating readers’
disdain at having to plow through another
account of yet another grueling training

characters; there is a certain affection
for both that seems to be coming from
Abdou’s own intimate understanding of
sport. However, Digger and Sadie’s lives
are so circumscribed by their dedication
to their respective athletic pursuits that
they are necessarily rendered as dull and
uninteresting in spite of the fact that they
are both headed to the Olympics—the
pinnacle of all athletic dreams.

Perhaps in an attempt to
make her characters more human and
less the single-minded machines that
Olympians must be in order to have
the remotest chance at a medal, Abdou
vaguely delves into her characters’ sex

lives. But this only comes across as
tacked-on and shallow—an editorial
afterthought designed to prevent readers’
attention from fading. Also, seemingly
to maintain reader care, the narration
is written exclusively in the present
tense. In this case, such a compositional
choice only draws attention to itself as
“technique” —automatically suggesting,
for me at least, that there is something
lacking in the story.

 

i a

Sport occupies odd _ territory
in our equally odd cultural epoch.
Existing somewhat as a paradox, sport
is primarily viewed as entertainment—
frivolous or otherwise— but at the same
time it has been given an elevated status.
In the absence of real drama, however,
the attempt to create a story out of what
is fundamentally a trivial subject will
lead to a boring tale—in real life or in
fiction.

 

 

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