Flame of Separation

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

At first glance, Flame of Separation appears to be just another tale of
a “golden boomer” who was swamped and beached by the revolutionary
excesses of the 1960s. In this case, promising high-school student
Dexter Cooke’s smooth academic trajectory was subverted by
counterculture guru “Brother Gabriel” and free-spirited lover
Angela. In the 1980s, he is Mr. Cooke, a mediocre, married, and
childless high-school teacher. Cooke’s life, and this story, interest
readers because troubled student Susan Slater tells him that she saw the
aforementioned shaman in a nearby wilderness.

Since British Columbia author Kennedy is a boomer who writes for his
peers, he realizes that his generation was raised on “relevance”—a
heightened appreciation of contemporary media, among other things.
Therefore, he uses it to establish his setting and comment on his
society. When Cooke wonders if his students have done their homework, he
jibes, “After getting through Three’s Company, of course.” His
senile father’s personal physician Charlie Samuels recommends “the
idiot box” for a patient who used to avoid the medium; he has “been
reduced to the level of an idiot.” Characters watch, and are defined
by, television.

The plot’s major weakness is that its Gothic, murder-mystery
overtones set up readers who are likely to be disappointed by its
prosaic conclusion. The classic downer ending is “It was just a
dream.” Unfortunately, the ending is not a nightmare.