Tent of Blue

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Hamilton writer/teacher Rachael Preston nearly pulls off a remarkable
feat in her first novel, the story of a mother and son who are
transplanted from Britain to Vancouver after World War II, the setting
alternating between 1930s London and 1950s Vancouver. It is difficult to
move a story’s plot across the pond without losing sight of its
characters’ consistency. Only at the novel’s conclusion does Preston
slightly stumble, perhaps because to the mix of London and Vancouver she
adds a chapter or two set in White Rock.

There are relatively few characters in Tent of Blue: Yvonne Crouch, the
daughter of an alcoholic music-hall performer; her teenage son, Anton;
her son’s father, Alexi Kavanov; her husband, the abusive British
theatre promoter Harold Crouch; Tom Hart, an elderly Vancouver World War
I veteran; and his abusive daughter, Clarice. Yvonne’s ambitions to be
a ballet dancer inform her early life, only to give way (especially
after her attempted escape to Vancouver) to her instincts for the
survival of herself and her son. While her efforts are doomed by her
husband (and memories of her difficult mother), Anton has a physical
problem: a club foot. Mother and son must deal with Harold’s
brutalities, each in their own way.

Preston knows both of her locations. She was born in Yorkshire and
immigrated to Canada, living in Vancouver while attending the Emily Carr
School of Art and Design. The strength of her writing is in the details,
from the gritty, cynical atmosphere of the British music hall to the
streets of Vancouver’s South Granville and Kitsilano neighbourhoods.
Some wordiness at the end is excusable in a first novel, as is the
effort evident in the striving for a profound conclusion. Well worth the
read.