Duet

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Two old curmudgeons—Carman, a recently widowed, retired police
detective with a heart condition, and Norma, a divorced, eccentric,
overweight junk collector with painful arthritis—are the unlikely duet
of the title of this novella. Helwig’s memorable characters are thrown
together by chance when Carman, driving aimlessly around Ontario,
happens upon a small town with a cottage to rent. On the surface, the
argumentative pair seem to have nothing in common, but the reader soon
realizes that they share unsatisfying relationships with their children,
a dismay at having lost their spouses and at experiencing the physical
limitations of aging, and a general anger at the world that disguises
their basic need for human connection.

The book is essentially a series of interior monologues by both
characters, ruminations on the meaning of existence and nonexistence and
the fleeting nature of relationships, interspersed with evocative
descriptions of nature and small-town Ontario. There’s a certain black
humour throughout as the duet of bickering grudgingly evolves into an
almost loving relationship by the end of the story.