Home Movies

Martha Wilson is Canadian correspondent for the Japan Times (Tokyo) and
a Toronto-based freelance editor and writer.

When James Thompson, a young Toronto-based country singer, dries up and
heads back home to Datum, Ontario, for inspiration, he doesn’t expect
to solve the mysteries of his lost past—he’s just looking for
lyrics. James, who identifies with Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus, is a
bundle of nerves when he hits Datum. In three days he manages to
reconnect with his past, sort out his family history, and fall in love.
It’s an action-packed weekend.

James is endearing, if prickly. He has a swallowing problem and a
tendency toward obsessive counting, among other idiosyncrasies. His most
salient characteristic, though, is his loneliness. When a miniskirted,
pistol-packing fan plops down on the hood of his car and begins filling
James in on the shady pasts of his missing family members, he doesn’t
immediately realize that she’s the heroine. The weekend unfolds in
both predictable and unpredictable ways.

Robertson has a lush, extravagant prose style. Here he is on the hockey
rink: “Taking the pass at the blue line (softly:
black-rubber-on-taped-stick kiss) and (eyes closed, stick swung back,
crazy but knowing head-in-helmet radar telling you what to do and how to
do it) slap—shot—score!” Sometimes it seems he’s trying to wear
the reader out. On the whole, though, Home Movies is a delightful debut.