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Blunt explores the darkness I call life
Book Review
By Derryll White
Blunt, Giles (2015). The Hesitation Cut.
“Even the most remarkable woman is no substitute for God.”
-Father Michael.
I am always pleased to pick up a new Giles Blunt novel. His John Cardinal series has a ring of truth, catching northern Ontario as few other writers do. ‘The Hesitation Cut’ is not a Cardinal novel, but rather a stand-alone set, at least in part, in a monastery called Our Lady of Peace, in rural New York state.
Blunt gently asks this question of his readers – have you ever loved? It may be the scariest question one faces, for to love is to face the potential of great loss, the greater the more intensely one surrenders to love. I like his moves, deftly on the page blowing away possible lovers and having Mick zero in on Lauren. Not that Mick is the most substantial character in the story but Blunt makes him suave in a working class manner. I wish I had some of those moves, but not his anger.
Giles Blunt captures the essence of the independent bookstore in a couple of paragraphs, and once again demonstrates why I enjoy his writing so much. He understands why we, myself included, work in such stores for a pittance. We love books! A diverse and motley staff at Lotus Books, as in the novel, with divergent tastes – Blunt gets it. He meshes realities – the monastery, the frail poet, New York City, the compulsion of suicide, the bookstore, the heavy nature of drug dealing – with uncommon understanding and gentleness.
Peter Meehan – Brother William – walks the huge and incomprehensible modern city with an easy grace born of contemplation and thoughtfulness. Yes there is self-doubt and hesitation as well. He stands out in the novel because he is so unlike most of us. He is open to the minutiae of life, the sorrows and temerities of others. And he is capable of harbouring dark and deadly secrets. I like this character because I learn from him some of the gross inadequacies of my own life while at the same time recognizing that perhaps I am doing all right.
Perhaps one of the things I most appreciate about Giles Blunt is the delicacy of his words. He can take the reader, as he does in ‘The Hesitation Cut’, across the landscape of human emotion from passion to love to hate to deviousness. And then ‘the memory of Sandra began to recede, like a last faint wisp of patchouli.” Tender words, but for me they capture an era – motorcycles, San Francisco, love lost then gained then lost again. Not too many writers do that to me.
Inevitable though it was, ‘The Hesitation Cut’ did not end the way I wanted it to. It perhaps ended the way it had to for the writer, but not the way I wanted. No matter, it is an incredibly well-written novel – moving, touching, heartbreaking. Giles Blunt continues to explore the darkness I call life.
Part of me
Wants to kill me
That’s the part
I want to meet
-from ‘The Hesitation Cut’
****
Excerpts from the novel:
SIN – The purpose of perfume was physical attraction. A monk should not notice such things, and William was mortified that he had commented on it, even innocently.
THE CITY – She lit a Marlboro, wondering vaguely if the monks were allowed to smoke. Fresh air spoiled the taste, but you couldn’t smoke indoors anywhere these days, and she had a suspicion that lighting up would make the bus come sooner. The wildness of the surrounding hills was making her nervous. She imagined a woman fleeing through the woods: steel jaws snapped shut, and a scuffed white Reebok filled with blood.
Two cars sped by, small as cats, not the snarling predators of New York but miniature, tame cousins.
REBIRTH – It was frightening, this newly discovered power to do what one wanted, to have a dream and make it real, even if the reality bore scant resemblance to the dream. It was a capacity common to most human beings in varying degrees, but he had divested himself of it when he became a monk.
WORDS – “We have to do something.” She had looked at him and used the word we. It was an ecstasy to be pierced by this word: for days afterward it remained embedded in his chest.
HOME – A neat home was the combined essence of physical space and the being who inhabited it…. Home was the place where your thoughts were most free.
DESPAIR – To the lonely man, the world is composed of couples.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
Lotus Books is pleased to sponsor book reviews by Derryll White. If you are interested in a book that Derryll has reviewed you can shop online at http://lotusbooks.ca/, call us at 250-426-3415 or please visit us at 33 10th Ave. S. Cranbrook, and we would be happy to help you find a great read.
