Carnival

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

“We always said that Canada was that place we all emigrate to, to be
free. I did that. ... Whatever world was there before, the world Mama
and Papa knew, pushed us out. We lived in that sense of being pushed
out. We accepted that as growing up, and made a whole world for
ourselves out of what was left. What was left was broken pieces, things
little kids pick up, remember, and do not understand. Out of that we
made a world. And the other world became invisible.”

These are the words of a German-Canadian farmer named Hansel who, in
both memory and fact, revisits the German town of his childhood in these
closely linked stories. In poetic and deeply felt prose, he takes the
reader from the enchantments of youth—a world of make-believe and
carnival characters—to the horrors of war. The human impulse to escape
into storytelling, into forgetfulness, when confronted with tragic and
painful experience informs this passionate and beautifully told story.
While one might have wished for a more straightforward narrative (the
reflections and reminiscences are sometimes disjointed, even surreal),
one cannot but admire Rhenisch’s richly imaginative storytelling. He
is a master stylist, and Carnival a book to be treasured.