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Gargoyles (House of Anansi Press, 2006)
Exorcising Demons
Gargoyle - a grotesque carved figure...a spout in the form of a grotesque animal or human figure that projects from a building.
Sometimes a writer comes up with an idea that is truly inspired. With a title like Gargoyles how could the author go wrong? Apparently, as Gaston wrote each of these twelve stories, he sketched a distinct figurehead to look down over each. It would be interesting to see those inspirational sketches. Gargoyles are .... "The concrete representation of extremes of human emotions";, according to the publicity blurb in my advance reading copy. Heightened human emotions generally make for good drama, as is the case in the first story, Forms in Winter, which sets the theme precisely and concretely in more ways than one. Here is a parent suffering the unimaginable, a bereaved father who is driven to counsel other parents so that they don't make the mistake he and his wife made, with tragic and bizarre consequences. After completing this story, the reader will be able to visualize this particular gargoyle's face all too well, and probably would prefer not to.
In the second title story, an ageing, talented artist carries his offbeat, creative vision too far, losing wife, home and mobility in the process. Fortunately he has not lost his son, Richard, who has returned to be with him in this medical emergency. Richard's return has got a lot more to do with those gargoyles then is immediately apparent. The son remembers how, as a child, his creativity was encouraged: "Even now, decades later, Richard can see every homely, botched detail of his first gargoyle. Whenever he smells cedar, he sees that face emerging, smiling and mean, from the tortured wood. What was frustrating, but then not, was how different it was from what he'd drawn.....Then he learned to see that the gargoyle had always had its own idea of its face and it wasn't going to behave.. Because that's what gargoyles are like."; Thus in childhood Richard was taught a valuable lesson about creativity's quirks, beginning to understand his father's artistic excesses in the process. We readers, on the other hand, begin to prepare ourselves for a book in which undisciplined monsters run amok.
But these decorative roof spouts don't have to be grotesque or frightening; sometimes they can simply represent emotions like prejudice, bigotry or shame. In The Green House, a gentler beast perches atop a beleaguered house targeted for cruelty, bearing witness while a young boy's need to be 'cool' battles with his guilt and emerging self-awareness.
You just don't know what you're going to get in this 12-pack. The only thing you can be sure of is lashings of extreme emotion as the stories veer from gentle and contemplative to shocking and unsettling. Who is going to forget the funny, good natured and alcoholic British uncle who lets his brother's children bury him in the frigid sands of Vancouver's Long Beach? Or the mocking, sardonic writer who takes his revenge by immortalizing the early morning phone call made by his brother? Or the angry and humiliated son who takes his revenge on his mother and her latest lover in a potentially dangerous but ultimately satisfying way?
Who can't help but smile at lines like those given to the son in The Night Widow who is told to get lost for a while so his mother can be with her lover, ";He hasn't cried and he won't. He knows he's really all she has in her life. He has just realized that she truly doesn't know what will hurt him. That's how naïve and trusting she is -she thinks he is that mature, that above-it-all. That's how stupid she is - she thinks he is that smart.";
The author of the zany novel, Sointula, published in 2004, as well as several short story collections, a Giller prize nominee, (For Mount Appetite) and an instructor in British Columbia's University of Victoria Creative Writing Department, Gaston's literary reputation justifiably continues to grow. Irreverent, witty, relentless and roguish, he encapsulates truths in frequently outlandish methods.
Gargoyle, our fears, dreams and aspirations made three-dimensional. (Definition - mine.)
-- by Cherie Thiessen [January Magazine] 2006
Gargoyle - a grotesque carved figure...a spout in the form of a grotesque animal or human figure that projects from a building.
Sometimes a writer comes up with an idea that is truly inspired. With a title like Gargoyles how could the author go wrong? Apparently, as Gaston wrote each of these twelve stories, he sketched a distinct figurehead to look down over each. It would be interesting to see those inspirational sketches. Gargoyles are .... "The concrete representation of extremes of human emotions";, according to the publicity blurb in my advance reading copy. Heightened human emotions generally make for good drama, as is the case in the first story, Forms in Winter, which sets the theme precisely and concretely in more ways than one. Here is a parent suffering the unimaginable, a bereaved father who is driven to counsel other parents so that they don't make the mistake he and his wife made, with tragic and bizarre consequences. After completing this story, the reader will be able to visualize this particular gargoyle's face all too well, and probably would prefer not to.
In the second title story, an ageing, talented artist carries his offbeat, creative vision too far, losing wife, home and mobility in the process. Fortunately he has not lost his son, Richard, who has returned to be with him in this medical emergency. Richard's return has got a lot more to do with those gargoyles then is immediately apparent. The son remembers how, as a child, his creativity was encouraged: "Even now, decades later, Richard can see every homely, botched detail of his first gargoyle. Whenever he smells cedar, he sees that face emerging, smiling and mean, from the tortured wood. What was frustrating, but then not, was how different it was from what he'd drawn.....Then he learned to see that the gargoyle had always had its own idea of its face and it wasn't going to behave.. Because that's what gargoyles are like."; Thus in childhood Richard was taught a valuable lesson about creativity's quirks, beginning to understand his father's artistic excesses in the process. We readers, on the other hand, begin to prepare ourselves for a book in which undisciplined monsters run amok.
But these decorative roof spouts don't have to be grotesque or frightening; sometimes they can simply represent emotions like prejudice, bigotry or shame. In The Green House, a gentler beast perches atop a beleaguered house targeted for cruelty, bearing witness while a young boy's need to be 'cool' battles with his guilt and emerging self-awareness.
You just don't know what you're going to get in this 12-pack. The only thing you can be sure of is lashings of extreme emotion as the stories veer from gentle and contemplative to shocking and unsettling. Who is going to forget the funny, good natured and alcoholic British uncle who lets his brother's children bury him in the frigid sands of Vancouver's Long Beach? Or the mocking, sardonic writer who takes his revenge by immortalizing the early morning phone call made by his brother? Or the angry and humiliated son who takes his revenge on his mother and her latest lover in a potentially dangerous but ultimately satisfying way?
Who can't help but smile at lines like those given to the son in The Night Widow who is told to get lost for a while so his mother can be with her lover, ";He hasn't cried and he won't. He knows he's really all she has in her life. He has just realized that she truly doesn't know what will hurt him. That's how naïve and trusting she is -she thinks he is that mature, that above-it-all. That's how stupid she is - she thinks he is that smart.";
The author of the zany novel, Sointula, published in 2004, as well as several short story collections, a Giller prize nominee, (For Mount Appetite) and an instructor in British Columbia's University of Victoria Creative Writing Department, Gaston's literary reputation justifiably continues to grow. Irreverent, witty, relentless and roguish, he encapsulates truths in frequently outlandish methods.
Gargoyle, our fears, dreams and aspirations made three-dimensional. (Definition - mine.)
-- by Cherie Thiessen [January Magazine] 2006
Submitted on December 12, 2006 in By David.
