After the Fact

Ingrid conHausen was a librarian in New Hamburg, Ontario.

Canadian society as we know it is slowly disintegrating in this bleak novel of the near future. Artist Catherine, her school-age daughter Natalie, and Lawrence, Catherine’s lover posing as her husband, have left the city (Montreal?) to take refuge from unspecified horrors in the “Loyalist House” in a small village on the bay of a large river (the St. Lawrence?). The hostility they encounter only deepens as the tale unfolds. There are shortages of food, drugs, liquor, gas. Bands of rebels make forays into the village and the neighborhood. The village’s last industry closes, leaving the men of the village to drink in the local pub and to maintain the roads.

Told in the first person alternately by Catherine and by Marie-Ange, the local school teacher, the story gradually unfolds. At first there are sporadic acts of vandalism, and a beating or two. The final shocking climax, however, catches the reader unaware. This is not a horror story: the author does not deal with the violence explicitly. Nor is itthe author’s purpose to chronicle in detail the nitty-gritty of this possible future. Her concerns are with the internal landscape of her main characters, and with the effects of such harsh times on ordinary people. A chilling experience! Holden writes with economy, restraint, and a fine sense of language: “The boats returned empty — all except one, rumored to have brought in hundreds of shrimps still attached to a human limb like Brussels sprouts on a stem” (p.96).

Holden is a Montrealer of Greek and French descent who has written other novels and short stories. In 1977 she won the Prix de littérature Benson & Hedges. This reviewer looks forward to more from this fine writer.