How to Saw Wood with an Angel

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher and librarian in Winnipeg.

Gertrude Story continues the memoirs of her previous collection, The
Last House on Main Street, with these 17 anecdotes and reflections on
everyday life in her beloved Saskatchewan. The pieces include
reminiscences ranging from the changing of seasons in “Falling into
Winter” to discussions of the rituals of daily life in “Doing
Cooperation” and “Wow, Saskatoons!”

In the title piece, Story explains that the Writer Inside, assisted by
the Visitor-in-the-Head, feels compelled to share experiences of The
System of All Things with an audience. Although Story writes of
“Protesting the Protestant Work Ethic,” this collection of
reflections clearly signals the pivotal role of that very work ethic in
her life and in the lives of her fellow prairie dwellers. The solution
to battling and surviving the elements in an environment that is often
unfriendly is reflected in her conclusion: “How to saw wood with an
angel? Joyously. With time out for a few laughs.”

“One of the ways to get an angel into your head,” insists Story,
“is to be engaged in something rhythmic.” Maintaining that sense of
rhythm and symmetry of language, the style of most of the collection is
chatty and relaxed. At times the cheerful “folksiness” gets a little
too coyly clever in its attempt to get “a few laughs”; however, the
wry humor and self-denigration of other pieces achieve that goal
successfully. The fascination with words expressed in “Talkin’
Prairie” is repeated in all the pieces. “The Power of Deer” and
“The Bliss of Weirdos” touch on the writer’s feeling that “there
were suddenly and at once two worlds, side by side, and I was in
both.” Story reflects on the “connectedness” of humans to their
universe, and on the need for a balance between the “two worlds”
that will keep the human soul continuing, despite loneliness and
despair, to search for ways to “saw wood joyously.” Readers
interested in the reflections and reminiscences of an “After Sixty”
survivor will enjoy this collection.