AGASSIZ

by Sandra Birdsell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1991

Milkweed's first foray into hard-cover fiction--subtitled ""A Novel in Stories""--features Canadian Birdsell's sequence of family life and intergenerational conflict in the fictional Manitoban town of Agassiz: the stories are bleak takes on impoverishment in a harsh climate, but Birdsell gently emphasizes moments of regeneration and imaginative transcendence. Agassiz is also the name of the lake that covered much of the prehistoric northern plains many years ago, and the image gives the past metaphorical weight for the Lafreniere family--especially three daughters trapped not only by poverty but also by father Maurice and mother Mika's tense marital truce. Maurice represses his own mÉtis, or mixed-blood, heritage, and believes that Mika is capable of gentleness ""only with babies"" (""Boundary Lines""); Mika, for her part, gives up her lover James only when faced down by her Russian Mennonite father (""Night Travellers""). The many impressive tales chronicle the coming-of-age of the three children (Truda, Lureen, Betty); Maurice's decline (the haunting ""Journey to the Lake"" brings death to him with a final vision where he answers ""the call of blue herons""); the children falling in and out of love and good fortune (""There is no Shoreline,"" ""Falling in Love,"" ""Ladies of the House"") and having kids along the way; and, after betrayal, loss, and loneliness, the cycle beginning all over again in ""The Bird Dance,"" about Lureen's adolescent daughter, before closing with ""Keepsakes,"" a reunion story where Mika finds a voice. Birdsell is intent on re-creating an atmosphere that ""is dreary, relentlessly claustrophobic,"" but she's also a masterful storyteller, able to render quiet moments of beauty and grace as ballast to bleakness.

Pub Date: April 15, 1991

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Milkweed

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991

Categories: FICTION