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Bow Grip (Arsenal Pulp Press)
In her new novel Bow Grip (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006), storyteller, bon vivant and trickster Ivan E. Coyote writes a grimy gem complete with cigarettes, loneliness, run down motels, a lesbian love child and er, a cello.
Based in Vancouver's East End Coyote is the author of three previous short story collections including the warm and plainspoken short tales found in Loose End (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005). At the conclusion of that collection Coyote writes of a fire that destroyed the home she lived in for 12 years. In Bow Grip Coyote credits her cousin who pried the hard drive out of her melted computer after her house burned down saving the manuscript that is this, her first novel.
The question for Coyote's fans was whether she would have the staying power for a longer work. The answer is a definite yes, Bow Grip is a heartfelt, amusing page turner with characters recognizable from the working class walk of life.
Joey Cooper is a good-hearted, forty-something mechanic from Drumheller, Alberta until recently happily married to Alison. His buddy Mitch Sawyer runs an Esso in town and his wife Kathleen is a quiet kindergarten teacher. Mitch and Joey played hockey together and share the occasional beer. Now they share some news; their wives ran off with each other -and as is the case in a small town -everybody knows. Mitch now spends his nights in the bar of the local hotel, lamenting to anyone who will listen about his wife running off with another woman to their "one-bedroom artist's loft in Calgary";.
As Joey Cooper sees it: "Mitch Sawyer seems to feel that the fact that Kathleen left him for another woman is more binge-and-sympathy worthy than if she'd just run off with his brother or the postman, but I guess I don't really see it that way. My wife of five years has left me, and I pretty much don't care who she went with, all I know is that she's gone, and it's been about twelve and a half months now of looking like she isn't coming back. Drinking doesn't seem to help much either, so mostly I try and just avoid running into Mitch Sawyer. I like the Mohawk gas better anyways, higher octane, plus they got the video rental counter right there in the gas station. I've been watching a lot of movies lately.";
Coyote has a great ear for conversation and a keen understanding for those small moments that define who we are and offer glimpses of our humanity. Moments that are often punctuated with a dry, observant sense of humour.
When James, a stranger who lives in a bus on the edge of town, approaches Joey at the garage he works at they come to a Robert Johnson crossroads deal. Joey agrees to sell his beater Volvo in exchange for a beautiful handmade cello. Joey sees the cello as an opportunity to make some overdue changes in his life-considering his mother keeps insisting he needs a new hobby to get over his break up- and it is hard to argue with your mother.
The car breaks down shortly after Joey sells it to James. He takes a trip out to the bus where he lives and makes a dark discovery about the reasons for its purchase. Then moping about at home one evening Joey makes another startling finding, his wife had graduated from college while they were together without his knowledge. How could such a thing take place in a relationship?
"I had never sat down at Ally's desk since I gave it to her, just like she would never have touched anything on my workbench in the garage, or opened mail with only my name on it. It was one of the things about Ally and me that I had always appreciated, that we still had private spaces and lives. No rules or hassles about it, we just fell into things that way. We were both just naturally private people. Not like some couples get. Until she popped the news to me about her and Kathleen Sawyer, of course. That was the first time that her privacy turned itself into a secret.";
With his suspicions now aroused, and with a strong desire to close the door on his failed marriage and return some furniture, Joey hits the road and travels to Calgary where he lands at a rundown hotel straight out of a Sam Shephard novel populated with mysterious drifters offering sage advice.
Joey's eventual meeting with his ex and her new beau produces one more surprise for him, but not before he finds a cello teacher, a sympathetic shrink, insight into the furtive James and a new path for his life. The cello it seems is a conduit- the sound and the shape of the mystical musical note of life passing through us.
-by Grant Shilling
[BCBW 2006]
Based in Vancouver's East End Coyote is the author of three previous short story collections including the warm and plainspoken short tales found in Loose End (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005). At the conclusion of that collection Coyote writes of a fire that destroyed the home she lived in for 12 years. In Bow Grip Coyote credits her cousin who pried the hard drive out of her melted computer after her house burned down saving the manuscript that is this, her first novel.
The question for Coyote's fans was whether she would have the staying power for a longer work. The answer is a definite yes, Bow Grip is a heartfelt, amusing page turner with characters recognizable from the working class walk of life.
Joey Cooper is a good-hearted, forty-something mechanic from Drumheller, Alberta until recently happily married to Alison. His buddy Mitch Sawyer runs an Esso in town and his wife Kathleen is a quiet kindergarten teacher. Mitch and Joey played hockey together and share the occasional beer. Now they share some news; their wives ran off with each other -and as is the case in a small town -everybody knows. Mitch now spends his nights in the bar of the local hotel, lamenting to anyone who will listen about his wife running off with another woman to their "one-bedroom artist's loft in Calgary";.
As Joey Cooper sees it: "Mitch Sawyer seems to feel that the fact that Kathleen left him for another woman is more binge-and-sympathy worthy than if she'd just run off with his brother or the postman, but I guess I don't really see it that way. My wife of five years has left me, and I pretty much don't care who she went with, all I know is that she's gone, and it's been about twelve and a half months now of looking like she isn't coming back. Drinking doesn't seem to help much either, so mostly I try and just avoid running into Mitch Sawyer. I like the Mohawk gas better anyways, higher octane, plus they got the video rental counter right there in the gas station. I've been watching a lot of movies lately.";
Coyote has a great ear for conversation and a keen understanding for those small moments that define who we are and offer glimpses of our humanity. Moments that are often punctuated with a dry, observant sense of humour.
When James, a stranger who lives in a bus on the edge of town, approaches Joey at the garage he works at they come to a Robert Johnson crossroads deal. Joey agrees to sell his beater Volvo in exchange for a beautiful handmade cello. Joey sees the cello as an opportunity to make some overdue changes in his life-considering his mother keeps insisting he needs a new hobby to get over his break up- and it is hard to argue with your mother.
The car breaks down shortly after Joey sells it to James. He takes a trip out to the bus where he lives and makes a dark discovery about the reasons for its purchase. Then moping about at home one evening Joey makes another startling finding, his wife had graduated from college while they were together without his knowledge. How could such a thing take place in a relationship?
"I had never sat down at Ally's desk since I gave it to her, just like she would never have touched anything on my workbench in the garage, or opened mail with only my name on it. It was one of the things about Ally and me that I had always appreciated, that we still had private spaces and lives. No rules or hassles about it, we just fell into things that way. We were both just naturally private people. Not like some couples get. Until she popped the news to me about her and Kathleen Sawyer, of course. That was the first time that her privacy turned itself into a secret.";
With his suspicions now aroused, and with a strong desire to close the door on his failed marriage and return some furniture, Joey hits the road and travels to Calgary where he lands at a rundown hotel straight out of a Sam Shephard novel populated with mysterious drifters offering sage advice.
Joey's eventual meeting with his ex and her new beau produces one more surprise for him, but not before he finds a cello teacher, a sympathetic shrink, insight into the furtive James and a new path for his life. The cello it seems is a conduit- the sound and the shape of the mystical musical note of life passing through us.
-by Grant Shilling
[BCBW 2006]
Submitted on October 10, 2006 in By David.
