Smoke

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Smoke re-creates the conformist southwestern Ontario of the late 1950s,
focusing on two outsiders. Buster McFiddie, son of leading tobacco
farmer Tom, lost his facial features to a fire caused by drunkenness and
careless smoking. Doctor John Gray, who eases him through the recovery
process with stories about Detroit’s notorious Purple Gang, hides a
strange, intimate secret. Both profoundly affect each other’s lives.

The author complicates matters by featuring tobacco farmers as
community leaders. Our heightened awareness of the dangers of smoking
may cause readers to reject such heroes. Contrasting Tom McFiddie’s
ordered world with Purple Gang boss Raymond Bernstein’s underworld may
backfire—cynics may conclude that the gangster caused less suffering
than the farmer.

McFiddie does appear noble when he is contrasted with rival Len
Rombout. When the unwanted pregnancy of Len’s daughter is revealed, he
“called Susan a whore and slapped her across the face.” Tom gives
her employment and refuge.

Other social issues are humorously treated. Town snob Hazel Johnson
states that her Mohawk husband Walter could attend the town
sesquicentennial celebrations in a Lone Ranger costume. He, in turn,
suggests that she “should have asked me to come as Tonto ... Jay
Silverheels is from Six Nations too”—a reference to her negative
attitudes toward Native Canadians.

Despite thematic and social concerns, this novel works because it deals
with unusual characters in a creative fashion. Smoke triumphs by
sparking reader curiosity.