COLD CHAOS

Guilbeault presents an autofiction work based on her time living with her father in a frigid, unforgiving part of Canada.

In this book, 14 stories interconnect in a mix of fact and fiction about a woman the author names Adeline. The story begins with her birth through her departure from her rural Canadian home, when her father’s participation in the building of one of the world’s largest hydroelectric projects is nearing completion. Throughout, Adeline navigates complicated relationships with her mother, her sister, and several men she meets along the way; predictably, she begins to find herself quite outnumbered in terms of gender identity. She can use some of this situation to her advantage, as in “Omnipotence,” where a character gets to pick and choose which men to let into the only club around, the Red Caribou Lounge. Mostly, however, Adeline finds herself and others brutalized, thus rendering the book an occasionally difficult read. With that said, some of the most powerful reading includes “People Beyond the Horizon,” an early story whose central character, a ballerina, leaves Russia to dance and teach in Canada, where she meets and falls in love with a doctor (another recurring character in the book), a relationship that ends less than satisfactorily. Another foray into this kind of heavy drama is “Ungava Babe,” where Adeline’s father takes her on a short work trip that, in reality, is about meeting his new lover. In “Donuts and Coffee,” her mother begs a friend to find a job for her father far away from said lover. Most of the stories are almost too fleeting, with endings that are often abrupt but filled with tension nevertheless. As a result, Guilbeault, writing in English (in her final piece, she apologizes to her strictly French-speaking family for betraying them), has crafted a masterwork that you can’t help but stick with no matter what.

By turns heartbreaking and healing, these short stories will resonate with readers long past their final sentences.