Bad Latitudes

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Al Pope’s debut novel is a kaleidoscope of characters (goofy, gay, and
lesbian), Yukon settings (settled and wild), and emotions (good, bad,
and decidedly ugly, even among the seven sled dogs that are key to the
resolution of the story). The central storyline is fairly
straightforward. A young woman on the run in the Yukon bush is pursued
by a vengeful madman for rashly stabbing him in the ass while he
physically abused his wife. But it’s Pope’s popular style, the
story’s colloquial dialogue, and the twists and turns of the plot
(which have protagonists criss-crossing paths until the main ones
finally meet) that give the book its distinctive flavour and substance.

The Yukon of Pope’s imagination is populated with individuals who
come mostly from somewhere else: hippies and hoboes; alcoholics and
druggies; Rowan, a tough-talking middle-aged lesbian; Abe, a
construction worker who is recovering from a broken back and drying out
his alcoholism; a female massage therapist named Sky Blue, who has magic
fingers for women as well as men; assorted loggers and labourers with
names like Pigpen, Hurricane, Dago, and Mike who get off on drinking
their beer and guy talk; a 21-year-old Cheechako from Markham, Ontario,
who talks telepathically to her entertainer friend in Toronto, mimicking
Bogey and the Gabor sisters; and a wacko named Dale who beats and then
shoots his wife before taking to the bush to find Connie.

This fast-paced and suspenseful northern adventure is first-rate
entertainment.