The Happiness of Others

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia in Prince
George.

This—and every—collection from Rooke reminds me of one of those
omelets people make for themselves on Saturday mornings. Once folded and
eased onto the plate, it’s not necessarily the prettiest thing to look
at, but it is full of good things, so full in fact that odd bits of
onion, red pepper, and ham squeeze out. That’s the way it is with
Rooke. He doesn’t have the lightest touch, but he is generous. There
is never a bland mouthful in his stories.

As I was reading the book, two lines jumped out as saying something
essential about Rooke. The first is from “If You Love Me Meet Me
There”: “The house belongs to no time at all.” There is often
something about the time setting of the stories that is curiously
imprecise, yet not vague. The writing lends itself to the exercising of
the imagination as the reader has to build a picture of just where/when
some of the stories are. The second line is from “Biographical
Notes”: “Circumstance is relevant, origin is not, and accident is
the father of mankind.” This to me summarizes the method of a Rooke
story. There is a first-person narrator who tells a few things about
present circumstances and almost nothing about the past (assuming that,
because he knows it, we all know it), and stumbles from one (usually
comic) accident to the next, while heading toward some inevitable,
though unpredictable, conclusion.

A first-person narrator dominates every story. There is always someone
telling his own story—someone who is inevitably quirky and who warps
our perception of things because of his involvement. Readers must listen
to this narrator, yet to a certain extent they must fight him off; they
must see beyond the voice to the story that lies between the lines.
Sometimes Rooke’s narrators are a pain in the ass, and the author
appears too proud of the characters he’s showing off.

This is a good collection. Read it on a leisurely Saturday morning with
your omelet.