Sandbag Shuffle

Gregory Bryan is a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

As I read Kevin Marc Fournier’s book, Sandbag Shuffle, my thoughts often wandered to one of my favourite movies, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch and Sundance are, of course, outlaws on the run. Despite their deceitful, dishonest ways, the characters are so well portrayed in the movie by Paul Newman and Robert Redford that the audience cannot help but cheer for them. So it also is with Fournier’s Sandbag Shuffle protagonists, the teenager scam artists, Owen and Andrew.

Set during the Manitoba Red River flood of the spring of 1997, this intriguing and often funny novel details the exploits of two bickering, but loyal, rogues eager to seize upon the opportunity to exploit others’ misfortune for their own gain. Portrayed in another way, Andrew and his legless friend, Owen, might have emerged as despicably cold-hearted frauds taking advantage of their well-meaning victims. Instead, Fournier has endowed his central characters with such depth—including liberal sprinklings of admirable traits—that one takes them to heart.

Sandbag Shuffle is Fournier’s first novel. I expect that Thistledown Press was delighted to receive the manuscript. Both publisher and author have every reason to be delighted with the publication and to expect the book to generate strong sales. I eagerly await Fournier’s next work.

Highly Recommended