Site Dreams

Ann Moynes Smith is a high-school English teacher in Toronto.

The setting of this bleak and mostly hopeless story is sometime in the
future, somewhere in a “landfill site called Saskatchewan.” This is
home to a “tribe” of garbage pickers who exist, floundering in
filth, alongside the railroad tracks. The world seems to have run
environmentally amok. Due to pollution and contamination, people have
reverted to a cave/tribe mentality. Wisdom is lost. Life as we know it
no longer exists. These pitiful people, who take their names from labels
(Crane, Singer, Moen) on the garbage they spend their lives picking,
never question their miserable lot or think that it might be improved.

This tiny tribe is in danger of extinction, but in the character of
Paul lies hope. He has the gift of dreams, or visions, in which he sees
the past and how life then made use of what is now the garbage of his
existence. If he can glean wisdom and understanding from his “radio
dreams” and put them to good use, then perhaps he can bring hope and
change to the lives of his tribe. The options are clear: change or die.

The book is not an easy read. It is never made clear exactly what the
“big picture” is. Is the entire country, or world, in this abysmal
state of environmental disaster, or just the province of Saskatchewan?
Are these people among the few remaining in Canada or are they outcasts
from a civilization elsewhere? If the latter, why have they been cast
out?

The environmental message is as clear as the story is murky. If we do
not take responsibility for the earth, clean it and nurture it, we will
bequeath to future generations a land as barren and devoid of hope as
any nuclear holocaust could create.