Deep Hollow Creek

Elizabeth St. Jacques is a writer and poet living in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario.

Watson’s second novel, set in British Columbia during the 1930s,
concerns a young city-bred teacher who arrives in the rugged Caribou
region to teach 10 children in a village adjoining a Shuswap Indian
Reserve. Confronted from the outset with village gossip that intensifies
with the introduction of each new character, Stella learns of the
jealousies, poverty, and hardships that pervade both communities.

Unfortunately, the book falls short for many reasons. The reader never
really gets to know Stella or care much about her. Her own story
doesn’t begin until halfway through the book, and then, almost as an
afterthought, merely touches on her role as village teacher. Although
her compassion surfaces now and then, her warmth is unbelievable because
most of her unspoken thoughts are boring and long-winded, and smack of
intellectual and cultural superiority.

Apart from the occasional point of historical interest and brief
insights into the Shuswaps’ beliefs and customs, there is little out
of the ordinary in this novel. This reader expected more.

Getting through the book is made even more troublesome by the total
absence of quotation marks; it’s a test of patience to have to
constantly sort speech from thought and action. One wonders where the
editors were.