The Knife Behind the Gills

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Jack and Bernice own and run a marina on the Straits of Georgia, off the
coast of Vancouver Island. They have partners (Sam and Pat) and two sons
(Ray and Bill). Both sons have little to do with their parents. Ray’s
wife, Barb, is pregnant. Pat is dying of cancer. Sam and Pat’s son,
Terry, is schizophrenic.

Jack and Bernice, for their part, stopped loving each other many years
ago. Driven by the ghosts of their own parents, their relationship has
become a shell. “It’s that she simply and finally feels nothing for
me,” Jack reflects. “Nothing. I’m someone she doesn’t know, a
thing like a chair, or a toaster, an old shoe. No love, no hatred, not
even indifference. She is free of me. I can never again say I’m sorry
and have it count.”

The Knife Behind the Gills is not a tale of unremitting defeat as much
as it is one of opportunities lost and insight gained. At the
conclusion, when (after a scare) Barb’s baby is born healthy, Jack
says to one of his sons, “Billy, let’s see what we can do.” This
taut, character-driven first novel is highly recommended for Canadian
literature collections.