A Reckless Moon

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

Award-winning Saskatchewan writer Dianne Warren practises a bit of
deception with the seven stories (three previously published) in her
third collection. What first appear to be relatively simple fictions,
stories of rather narrow portent, become, on reflection, something quite
different: profound and understated commentaries on the lives we live.

In the title story, Finch, the man to whom the female narrator offers a
ride, gives his take on the horse-buying profession: “she’s just a
horse,” he says, speaking about an animal the narrator has driven
eight hours to see. She reflects for a moment on this. “It surprised
me that he would say that, but of course it’s true. All things
considered, a horse is just a horse. That’s probably the first thing
you have to learn on your way to becoming a horse dealer.” Stories
start quietly and end quietly, but contain within themselves themes and
ideas that reverberate at much deeper levels. In the opening story,
“Hawk’s Landing,” the central character is a ferryman in a little
Montana hamlet who becomes enmeshed in a family drama. In “Bone
Garden,” two teenage friends find each other in Saskatoon and engage
in a kind of ritualistic mating dance composed of equal parts
desperation and rebellion.

Warren is also a playwright: her play Serpent in the Night Sky was
nominated for a Governor-General’s award.