The Master of Strappado

David Mattison is a librarian with the B.C. Provincial Archives and
Records Services Library.

This collection of stories has been translated from the French edition Propos d’un vieux radoteur (Le Cercle du Livre de France). While the jacket makes a comparison with Orwell, the author’s style more closely resembles that of Kafka. All the stories have a distinctly European flavour to them. “The Master of Strappado,” the title story, appears to be set in Europe or at least somewhere unknown, “a lost little corner of the world cursed with a sinister name.” Narrating his own tale, the Master or Benefactor describes his war with the rodents of Strappado, who ingeniously devise means of stealing grain from his barn. The Benefactor’s ultimate answer is to deal with the rats through his own one-man criminal justice system. Having successfully dealt with the rats, he then turns his attention, at the story’s close, to the moon.

All of the stories deal to some degree with premonitions and dream-states, in particular the last, which is titled “Three Dreams.” “No Man’s Land,” the second story, looks at the imprisonment of a World War I soldier, Pierre R.,following a presentiment of peace. Rather than being celebrated, his vision is taken for madness and he ends the war and his life in an asylum. Just before his death he sees a photograph which duplicates his vision, a predictable conclusion. The Master of Strappado offers some interesting material for comparative studies between European and Canadian forms of short fiction as practiced by native and immigrant writers.