Contract with the World.

Robin Chamberlain is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University.

This reissue of Jane Rule’s fifth novel, originally published in 1980, is told from the point of view of six characters: Joseph Walking, Mike Hanging, Alma Writing, Roxanne Recording, Allen Mourning, and Carlotta Painting—three men and three women in their early thirties. Through these characters, Contract with the World weaves a story about the relationship between art, personal fulfillment, and sexuality.

As the titles of the novel’s sections (“Joseph Walking,” etc.) show, each character is defined by a particular action, whether momentarily or permanently. Joseph’s morning walks reveal the wonder within the ordinary. Although he is not an artist himself, he prints or speaks the words of others. Roxanne, Allen, and Carlotta are invested in the power of art, while Alma attempts to write and Mike to sculpt. The six narrators are bound together by only tenuous links; other than their age, it is their work as artists or artisans that they share. And although each of the six has a unique perspective, they share common concerns, particularly the link between the individual and his or her art, and that art with the world.

In Contract with the World, as in many of her other novels, Rule explores the meaning of community, the shapes of desire, and the power and limits of language. These themes are always intertwined, as Rule’s characters show how language and story create and shape communities of desire. Although Rule might be considered a literary activist for gay (especially lesbian) rights, her fiction never resorts to glorifying minority communities, thereby stereotyping them. Rather, she explores the complexity of all her characters, and how their personalities affect what their sexuality comes to mean for them. Through the multiple narrations, the reader comes to inhabit each character, to understand his or her particular relationship to the world.