In the Language of Love: A Novel in 100 Chapters

Chris Knight is a copy editor at Canadian Press.

Diane Schoemperlen has published what might at first seem to be a
creative writing exercise—a novel in 100 chapters, with each chapter
based on a stimulus word of the Standard Word Association Test.

The book chronicles the life and loves of an artist named Joanna—her
relationships with her parents, her first serious boyfriend (a trucker
named Henry), her lover (a married man named Lewis), and her family (her
husband, Gordon, and their son, Samuel). Many of the brief chapters move
quickly through these four stages of her life, comparing and contrasting
and not judging one to be better than the other. In fact, Joanna looks
at the various episodes mostly as mysteries. She wonders about her
father’s experiences in World War II, why her mother always seemed to
be angry, how Lewis could hide his affair from his wife but refuse to
lie to her in smaller ways.

In the end, however, the book lacks connection and growth. After 40,
50, 60 chapters it begins to seem as though they might all have been
written separately, placed on index cards, and given a good shuffle. By
chapters 98, 99, and 100, one realizes that these “reactions” to the
stimulus words are well constructed in themselves and do not lead
anywhere else.

This novel might be better described as a collection of short stories
with a common theme. As a novel, In the Language of Love is equal to,
but not greater than, the sum of its parts.