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A fine fireplace or beach companion
Book Review
By Derryll White
Barclay, Linwood (2007). No Time For Goodbye.
Ever have the desire to lead a dual life? Linwood Barclay is a Toronto-based Canadian writer who seems to have the basics of such a desire worked out. His work has grown steadily, with international reviewers likening him to the popular American mystery writer Harlan Coben. This may be in part because Barclay chooses to set many of his novels in the eastern United States.
I immediately like Terrence Archer. When I first run into him I don’t know if he will be a major character or not (he is), but he is using the narrative voice. He is telling the story. Husband of Cynthia Bigge, the character the story revolves around, Terry is a high school English and creative writing teacher who knows how to communicate. He writes, and reads, and tries hard to bring tuned-out teenagers to the wonders, joy and excitement of writing – to my mind a very noble calling.
The storyline in the novel is that Cynthia’s family disappeared 25 years ago, leaving a child of 14 alone. Now she has her own daughter, Grace, and wonders what ever happened to her mom, dad and brother.
One of Terry Archer’s students, a creative and alienated young woman who writes beautifully, nails down the central premise in ‘No Time For Goodbye.’ What does any of us really know about anyone? What certainty do we have? We are all strangers to one another.
That becomes very clear in this novel. Almost nothing is at it seems. Barclay handles the tensions well, continually building to a climax. My main complaint is that sometimes I lose belief, or am unable to suspend disbelief. I find myself thinking “Oh, that is just too convenient as the plot takes an unexpected turn. But on the whole the story runs clear and one is left re-thinking some of those old fantasies, and thinking ‘Ummm, maybe not!’
‘No Time For Goodbye’ is a novel for those who want to relax in front of the fireplace, or maybe on the beach given different weather, and let their mind drift while being entertained. I will read Linwood Barclay again, sometime.
****
Excerpts from the novel:
KNOWLEDGE – “Dear Anyone: This is a letter from Anyone to another anyone, no names required, because nobody really knows anybody anyway. Names don’t make a hell of a lot of difference. The world is made up entirely of strangers. Millions and millions of them. Everyone is a stranger to everyone else. Sometimes we think we know other people, especially those we supposedly are close to, but if we really knew them, why are we so often surprised by the shit they do?”
MEMORY – She broke a celery stalk, waved it in the air. It was a piece of rubber.
Playfully, she hit her mother on the arm with it.
Cynthia turned and looked at her, reached over very deliberately and broke off a rubbery stalk of her own, and hit Grace back. Then they used the stalks as swords. “Take that!’ said Cynthia. Then they both started to laugh, and slipped their arms around each other.
And I thought, “I’ve always wondered what sort of mother Patricia was like, and the answer’s always been here right in front of me.”
GOOD ADVICE – “What did you tell them?”
“I didn’t tell them anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I didn’t tell them anything. That was one thing I learned from my old man. God rest his soul. You never answer questions from the cops. Even if you’re one hundred percent innocent. Nobody’s situation ever improved after talking to the cops.”
– 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.
