The Well

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

One would be hard-pressed to find a finer practitioner of prairie
realism than Sinclair Ross. This reprint of The Well provides ample
proof that Ross, best known for the brilliant As For Me and My House,
was not just a one-novel wonder. Essentially, The Well is a
psychological thriller, although Ross is clever enough to mix genres so
that we are often unsure as to what fictional landscape we are
traveling. The story is replete with film noir elements that strongly
recall James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice: a drifter with a
murky past is befriended by a local farmer who has a young wife and
secrets of his own. Kristjan Gunnars of the University of Alberta
contributes an insightful and wide-ranging analysis of The Well in her
introduction. This handsomely produced and beautifully designed reprint
brings much-needed attention to an undeservedly neglected figure in
Canadian literature.