Sunday Afternoon

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

Manitoba-based David Elias is the author of Places of Grace and Crossing
the Line. His latest novel, Sunday Afternoon, examines the impact of the
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis on the Mennonite border village of Neustadt,
Manitoba.

This traditional community is dominated by the village elders and its
self-righteous preacher. Some, like widow Agnus Derksen, merely adjust.
Since her farm needs a man, she marries Harry, a sadistic psychopath who
beats Dickie, her mentally handicapped son. Others, like amateur
photographer Martha Wiebe and the facially deformed Martens brothers,
maintain their spiritual independence. Carpenter Abe Wiebe, who fought
in the Korean War, and Katie Klassen, who became a Hollywood movie star,
are prodigal characters. Sensitive poet Steven Zacharias and lustful
Betty Unger embody nascent 1960s youthful rebellion. These villagers
will experience spectacular events that will profoundly alter them.

Elias explores the United States with scenes set in Washington and
Hollywood, as well as North Dakota. American characters include
President John F. Kennedy, his vice-president “Elby” (Lyndon Baines
Johnson), and Marilyn Monroe. The author, like Katie Klassen, realizes
that being dominated by powerful Americans is no better than being ruled
by local satraps. When she is on a film shoot with Marilyn Monroe, the
latter is summoned to a mysterious limousine by “the man in the
suit.” Katie hears her colleague ask the limo’s passenger, “You
think you can walk all over people and get away with it?” After the
icon’s suicide, she bolts for home, perhaps to avoid a similar fate.

Elias offers lively, raw prose for daring readers.