Why Do You Live So Far Away?

Nora Robson was a writer living in Montreal.

Norman Levine is a Canadian writer who, after several years of living in England, returned to his native Ottawa.

Why Do You Live So Far Away? is a collection of one novella and six short stories, written for the most part in the 1960s when he was living abroad. Denis Deneau, Levine’s publisher, has brought the works together now in order to make all the author’s literature available in Canadian print.

The theme of the collection is the problem faced by the penniless artist living in a foreign country. Alienation, isolation, rejection, and lack of communication between friends and lovers are illustrated in each individual story.

“The Playground,” a novella written in 1961 and revised in 1980, introduces this series of “hard times” tales. The conflicting emotions of the characters and Starkie’s eventual suicide are well drawn. “The Playground” is reminiscent of Scott Fitzgerald’s poor-little-rich-folks on the French Riviera.

“Boiled Chicken” (1962) underlines how “you always hurt the one you love.” “The Dilettantes” (1960) tells about the loneliness of living in a fantasy world, lost to reality. “I’ll Bring You Back Something Nice” (1968) shows the depths the artist can sink to in order to cadge a few pound notes from old alumni. “Ringa Ringa Rosie” creates a sense of pathos when the artist insists on living in a make-believe world while forcing his family to accept poverty. In “Why Do You Live So Far Away?” Levine underlines cultural and familial parallels between the artist and his father which refuse to vanish conveniently for him. The sign on his wall reminds him that “You’ve got to get out of here.”

“Continuity” was written in 1975 as part of the Thin Ice collection but was not published until now. Levine uses it as a link between the stories he wrote in England and his later Canadian stories. The reminiscences of his Ottawa childhood and his grandparents’ farm are well documented as he compares that time with rural life and English farms.

For those who collect the works of Norman Levine, Why Do You Live So Far Away? will be a welcome addition. These stories do serve to emphasize the world of alienation, isolation, and rejection as depicted in much literature of the 1960s.