Grasslands

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

There are two distinct threads running through Grasslands, Hetherton’s
first short-story collection. One thread deals with the emotional world
his characters inhabit: there is a muted sadness, a longing to belong,
an inability or unwillingness to communicate in any meaningful way, a
sense of alienation and marginalization and of being at the mercy of a
fate that is both inevitable and fickle. The second thread concerns
itself with the physical landscape, with the stark and treeless prairie,
the lonesome wilderness, the angry rivers, the oppressive and menacing
skies—all of which mirror the characters’ emotional world, yet have
a beauty and a spirit all their own.

In “Empress,” a middle-aged hunter encounters a teenager whose car
has broken down and who seems to be either running away from trouble or
looking for it. In “Toolpush,” a boy comes of age while working on
the oil rigs. In “Coeur D’Alene,” a man tries to reconnect with
his estranged girlfriend’s daughter.

Although it would be easy to dismiss many of Hetherton’s characters
as losers, the clarity and poetic quality of the writing invests these
dispossessed figures with a sense of grace as they struggle to gain
recognition and a sense of self. Like Arthur Miller, the author of this
perceptive and moving collection of stories makes the case that
attention must be paid to such people.