Wastefall

David Mattison is a librarian with the Provincial Archives and Records
Service Library in Victoria.

The 1989 winner of the twelfth annual Pulp Press Three-Day Novel
Contest, Vancouver actor and writer Miller’s short, energetic book
gives new meaning to the phrase “Those who live by garbage, die by
garbage.” Toxic in its condemnation of solid-waste management,
Miller’s environmental fairy tale traces the unheroic life of a man
named Forrest, who builds a new life for himself in a giant landfill.
Initially, like a caged animal craving liberation, Forrest seeks a way
out of his hellhole. Capitulating to his fate, he discovers the
treasures of consumerism in the landfill: a Cadillac becomes his castle
and he finds limitless food rations, cast-off clothes, tools to
construct all manner of comforts. Forrest’s greatest
treasure—someone’s abandoned infant—grows up to despise his
limited world and surrogate father. Young Vuitton escapes and makes his
fortune in the real world—first in real estate, then in land
reclamation. While trying to escape from the landfill now being mined by
his adopted son, Forrest is predictably disposed of by an industrial
accident. Environmentally chic, Wastefall entertains and educates about
the perils of living in a wasteful world.