The Sundog Season
Description
$19.95
ISBN 0-88801-306-X
DDC C813'.6
Author
Publisher
Year
Contributor
Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.
Review
Ottawa journalist John Geddes is probably best known as Maclean’s
Parliament Hill bureau chief, but he widens his literary scope with his
novel. Although his childhood home of Cochenour was a Northern Ontario
mining town, like this narrative’s West Spirit Lake, the work may not
be autobiographical. This author may merely mine his past.
If his story is truly fictional, its plot contains one major parallel
with Geddes’ life. His family moved to Ottawa from Shawville, a
residential Quebec town near Ottawa. His unnamed young protagonist
formerly lived in “a suburb where I played on lawns.” The
introduction of “Sgt. Martin ... maybe a bad cop sent into exile” at
his isolated local provincial police detachment provides a dramatic
element that places this tale beyond the level of fictionalized
autobiography. A further element of mystery is introduced when the boy
discovers his older sister Katie drinking in a local motel room with
several other people, including the suspect police officer.
The knowledgeable novelist expertly balances fantasy and reality
because his life experience may adequately substitute for the research
required of other authors. His character has a through knowledge of lake
ice and juvenile hockey. He notes that “[h]ockey equipment back then
was still leather, not yet bright plastic and nylon, and the gear was
often named after animals.” Such expertise enables savvy readers to
figure out the protagonist’s era; the rest may find the author’s
1961 birthdate and do the math.
The Sundog Season balances fact and fiction, as its plot leavens heavy
drama with childhood nostalgia. Such tension creates a nuanced narrative
that holds the reader’s interest.