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A wonderful writer worth searching for
Book Review
By Derryll White
Aubert, Rosemary (2001). The Ferryman Will Be There.
She is a mysterious writer of mysteries. Rosemary Aubert’s Ellis Portal mysteries are always very hard to find, so I counted myself lucky when I found ‘The Ferryman Will Be There’ in a used shop in Victoria.
First of all, she’s Canadian and so not widely distributed, and second Ellis Portal hangs in Toronto so Aubert is read more there than in the west. Be that as it may, she is a wonderful writer worth searching for.
Like the ravines that Ellis Porter inhabited in a previous novel, this story winds and turns, combining complex strands of poverty, child abuse, racial prejudice, exploitation and wealthy privilege. Aubert also weaves in strands of past stories, enough to give a full picture of Ellis Portal’s former life as lawyer, judge and homeless vagrant. Always and primary is the call for, no the demand for, social justice.
‘The Ferryman Will Be There’ is a story about belief, trust, and the ability to love beyond sex or ownership. Ellis Portal saves himself by saving others. Rosemary Aubert keeps the story straight and the language simple – and focused on the re-invention of Ellis Portal as an acting, wilful man who reaches out to others. This novel challenges each reader to do just a little bit to make this a better world to live in. Find out who the Ferryman is!
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Excerpts from the novel:
TORONTO – This Gargantua in the heart of town was the newest in a long line of Toronto Police Headquarters and it looked more like an intercontinental hotel than a cop shop. I supposed that was appropriate for a sophisticated city of more than four million people, nearly half from other countries. The Toronto police offered emergency services in one hundred and forty languages. I appreciated the present cosmopolitan nature of the city, even though I could still remember when Headquarters had been a run-down hulk on grungy Jarvis Street and the language of service had been English.
LAND OF OPPORTUNITY – Chinese, East Indian, Tamil, Ethiopian, Iranian. I recognized these ethnicities as I had once recognized the Italians and the Irish, both now totally assimilated and living in fine houses like the ones my father had helped build. Someday these children too would move away from their government-subsidized apartments, would make a better home for themselves, would leave space here for new immigrants to fill. Canada is a cold country with a warm heart.
– 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.
