Black Swan

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Gertrude Story has created an interesting phenomenon here: the 13 stories or chapters read more like a novel than a collection of short stories. The plot flows and thickens; events obscure in the beginning are explained by the end; the characters (the same in each story) become more familiar. Yet each chapter is a story that stands perfectly well on its own. Though Story uses minimal repetition of previous events in a story or chapter, the reader is never left in the dark. Her technique is superb.

The story revolves around the father: handsome, hard, irresponsible. “He was big and beautiful and glowing on the outside where you could see him; but on the inside he had too little room.” He favours one child and completely neglects the others. First it was Elsa, but she was replaced by Floydie. Elsa cannot survive without her father’s attention and kills herself. Floydie drowns and the father subsequently favours Floydie Two. Gerda, Murray, and the mother are virtually ignored, despite their pleas for attention. Gerda, the narrator, buries and redirects her emotions and vulnerability. The repression transforms her into a “Singer,” similar to an automatic writer: “As soon as the paper and the pencils were in front of her, Gerda would close her eyes and wait for the pictures. Sometimes she would have to say, I’m ready, darn it! to herself, or to the picture-maker, but mostly she just closed her eyes and waited.”

The book portrays Gerda’s thoughts and experiences from early girlhood to middle-age. Although her poems are important, they are not the focus: this is not a poet’s tale. It is the story of a German Canadian family in Saskatchewan. The tale is told and the characters drawn with Faulkner-like tones, especially Gerda with her desperate need to order things and her constant hiding of emotion. Gerda grows and changes in interesting ways.

The last three chapters or stories are disappointingly convoluted as Gerda seems to lose her grasp on reality. The sense is difficult to discover and the overall effect of the preceding ten chapters is spoiled.

Gertrude Story is currently writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library. Black Swan isher fifth published book.