The Origin of Waves

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Blinded by the fury of a December blizzard, two elderly men accidentally
collide on a sidewalk in Toronto. Their chance impact turns out to be an
unbelievable stroke of luck. Although the two men have not seen each
other in 50 years, each instantly recognizes the other as a former
childhood friend from Barbados.

Fate seems to be most co-operative because Jim and John are not only
reunited after five decades, but their reunion takes place in front of a
tavern. They enter and, round by round, slowly catch up on each
other’s lives. Both characters talk in waves—their stories do not
unfold in linear narrative but wash back and forth over the same
territory, adding and subtracting details with each new telling. Both
men seem to be hiding something; like two ancient boxers in a final
sparring match, they circle each other warily, neither letting his guard
down. Round by round, wave by wave, the truth comes out. And then it is
closing time.

What makes this novel so absorbing is Austin Clarke’s supreme skill
as a storyteller. From the moment Jim and John bump into each other, the
reader perceives the mixed emotions that connect and entangle the two
men. The author manages not only to pack two complete lives into the
story, but also to leave enough room at the end for the reader to care
what happens next.

The Origin of Waves is one of Clarke’s finest works.