It’s been suggested I provide a more detailed explanation of what the book is about. Merely saying “it’s a novel” or “it’s a story” isn’t enough for most people (fair enough!), and in conversation I’ve struggled beyond stating; “it’s set in 1998 in Canada and Central America” Beyond a few small things, I didn’t write this with anything in mind apart from trying to tell a story. The idea for it began in 1998 while travelling overland from Canada to Nicaragua and back. Conceived originally as light travel fiction, I bolted on a parallel story set in Winnipeg afterward. If there’s an over-arching theme, it is that of looking at Canada, or being Canadian, from the outside in. My experiences of being abroad are that it reinforces one’s Canadian identity, so through the characters I’m able to explore that. Another theme is an attack on drug prohibition. I’ve done this overtly though dialogue, and through the events that take place. I want to leave a reader in no doubt as to the ineffectiveness of laws that do far more harm than good. In doing so I’ve taken care not to glamorize drug dealing, and use, but tried to paint it in neutral hues. I chose the year 1998 not only because I travelled through the same part of the world during that year, but it stands on the cusp of the digital world in which we now live. A world without Google or Amazon; with email in its infancy, and in which not everyone has mobile phones, and even fewer have computers, and internet access. The novel is in two parts. The first – Friends and Lovers – begins in Guatemala, and moves around that country as a thirty-two year old Canadian called Sal flies there to meet up with his friend, Daniel, who has travelled around Central America for the previous five winters. Ostensibly on a three week vacation away from his wife, Sal takes advantage of his open ticket and the tale takes a “Shirley Valentine-esque” turn. The story moves back to Winnipeg, where Sal’s friends Ron and Jack prepare to accompany Sal’s wife to go and retrieve him. The second part – Sunshine and Shadow – starts in Mexico, as Ron and Jack arrive. The story separates into different strands, and meanders through Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico before returning to Winnipeg. There’s an emphasis on humour in the beginning, but as the story unfolds – especially when the action moves back to Winnipeg - it becomes darker, with a nail-biting finish. Love, loss, friendship and betrayal are other themes that ride the story, along with food, and music.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:16:09 +0000
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