I Can Hear Me Fine

Elizabeth Siegel Masih is the editor of Write On: The Newsletter for
Young Canadian Writers and Readers.

This is a book without a beginning or an end. It is structured as a
series of fragments of time that contain the characters of Joelle,
Claudine, and Claudine’s former lover, Marcus. Many of theses
“scenes” are devoted to Claudine’s memories of Marcus, which are
mixed with strange images and seemingly irrelevant glimpses of different
elements in her surroundings. Very little happens, and when it does it
is more often in Claudine’s strange, vision-like flashbacks than in
the characters’ real lives.

The author’s language has the reassuring ebb and flow of the ocean,
and many of her images have a unique strangeness that reminds one of a
creation of the subconscious mind. Unfortunately, this same quality also
serves to frustrate the reader. Many of Smith’s images are
indecipherable, and several of the “scenes” appear to be unconnected
and meaningless.

This author’s writing is powerful and worth reading, but it appears
to be more suited to a concise form like poetry or lyrics than to a
104-page story.