Bordering

Janet Money, formerly the sports editor of the Woodstock Daily
Sentinel-Review, is a freelance writer and editor in London, Ontario.

Having fallen in love with a woman, Louise McDonald left her marriage,
only to be left alone. Now she’s immobilized and unable to find the
energy to make even the simplest of decisions. Her distant and recent
past have conspired to put her in a present that feels like quicksand (a
scene in which Louise gets stuck in mud and nearly goes under perfectly
illustrates her fix).

A young friend is caught smuggling drugs, and Louise tries to figure
out how her friend was set up. As her involvement deepens, Louise and
her two friends find out some unsavory truths about the stifling small
town in which she lives.

Early on in the novel, one is tempted to write off the protagonist as
pathetic. But Armstrong’s skilful writing draws the reader in; Louise
is not pathetic but understandably paralyzed. Coming out as a lesbian is
not always an overnight success story; sometimes it is agonizingly slow.
Making decisions and acting on them can be dreadful processes. Armstrong
portrays this situation realistically in her well-written second novel.