Rules Of Engagement [Paperback]

Toronto writer Catherine Bush made quite a splash with her first novel, Minus Time, which was shortlisted for the Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Toronto Book Award in 1994. Like its predecessor, The Rules of Engagement advertises its author as a savvy inhabitant of the global village. Arcadia Hearne, the protagonist, an expert on war, sits in a nice little institute and her cozy London flat pontificating on the world's trouble spots. Enter her sister Lux, a globetrotting celebrity VJ, with an appeal to help an actual refugee, and Arcadia's world is turned upside down. Could she be hiding from life? For Arcadia, friends and lovers are fellow duellists from whom one always eventually withdraws. We follow her back to Toronto and to her youth, to the origin of this emotional block.

In this well-crafted, even gripping read, Bush draws us inexorably through a web of beautiful vistas and clever wordplay toward the denouement. It is, however, a risky exercise--the writing and the plot teeter between great art and utter pretension. The writer might have pulled it off, were said denouement anywhere near as fulfilling as she leads us to believe. Unfortunately writing is a bit like sex (an activity well covered here): without a real climax, the most brilliant foreplay is nothing but a tease. --Robyn Gillam --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Eloquent and thoughtful, Bush's second novel (after Minus Time) uses the twin motifs of war and intervention to explore the nature of trust, responsibility and personal risk. The protagonist, Arcadia Hearne, is a 31-year-old Canadian expatriate now residing in London, where she works for the Centre for Contemporary War Studies. Arcadia receives a visit from her younger sister, Lux, host of a world music show seen globally. Lux introduces her to Basra Alale, a beautiful Somalian refugee and songwriter, who in turn introduces Arcadia to Amir Barmour, an Iranian teacher/translator/print-shop-worker. As Arcadia enters into a cautious relationship with Amir, flashbacks reveal details of her past romances. We learn that during her college years in Toronto, Arcadia had two lovers: the passionate, nihilistic Evan Biederman and Neil Laurier, a free-spirited but pretentious philosophy student. When Arcadia leaves Evan for Neil, an embittered Evan challenges his rival to a duel. Inexplicably, the laid-back Neil accepts. Arcadia learns of her lovers' mad plans, but finds herself unable to bring herself to intervene. The duel goes ahead as planned, Neil is badly wounded and a grief-stricken Arcadia flees the country, intent on putting as much distance as possible between herself and the source of her guilt. In heavy-handed fashion, Bush draws provocative parallels between Arcadia's war-related work at the Centre and the more immediate violence that she has experienced in her own life. Although the novel is gracefully written, pensive and dignified, it is hurt by Arcadia's cool, often aloof personality, which prevents the reader from engaging emotionally with her. Consequently, what could have been a devastating look at the symbolic confluences of personal and global conflict never catches fire.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

In the latest book from Bush (Minus Time), war researcher Arcadia Hearne and her sister Lux help a Somali woman, Basra Alale, escape from London to Toronto. As Arcadia passes money to Basra, she meets Amir Barmour, a friend of the woman. In the ensuing relationship that develops, Amir keeps some secrets, as does Arcadia: ten years ago in Toronto, two students fought a duel over her, one of whom has since died. Lux and Amir force Arcadia to confront her past, and, while on a brief return to Toronto, she is obliged to face her parents, whom she has not treated well. Arcadia matures and is able to reconcile with Amir when she returns to London. This novel, which deals affectingly with life, death, responsibility, and love, is highly recommended for all public libraries and most academic libraries."Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. Libs., MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Arcadia Hearne is a war researcher trying to run from a past she can't forget. Ten years ago, when Arcadia was in college in Toronto, two men (her boyfriend, Evan, and her lover, Neil) fought an old-fashioned pistol duel over her. Since fleeing Toronto for London, Arcadia has settled comfortably into a job at the Center for Contemporary War Studies. Both fascinated and repulsed by violence, Arcadia hides behind her research, refusing to become involved with the conflicts she studies. She has never seen a war firsthand. But when her sister, Lux, asks her help in aiding a Somali refugee, Arcadia reluctantly agrees. She becomes interested in the woman's history and also in her friend, Amir. When Arcadia and Amir become lovers, Arcadia is forced to examine her beliefs and her past. The story shifts gracefully back and forth from the present to the past; the reader learns the details of Arcadia's relationships with Evan and Neil as Arcadia confronts the past she has been hiding from for so long. An engrossing story. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Compelling and provocative. -- The Los Angeles Times

She traverses war zones — psychological, sexual, real — with a clear-eyed, cerebral sophistication. -- The New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

The war raging within: the author of the critically acclaimed Minus Time delivers a powerful bullet on the nature of love and war, risk and responsibility

Despite her hatred of physical violence, Arcadia Hearne is a researcher who studies contemporary war. Specializing in issues of risk and military intervention, she methodically surveys the rich arsenal of current global conflicts available to her dispassionate intellect. Ironically, she can’t seem to come to terms with her own inner conflicts, desperately trying to balance the scales of emotional risk and emotional pain.

Arcadia is haunted by a violent episode in her past, an incident involving two university students, both her lovers, who resort to an old-fashioned pistol duel in a Toronto ravine to decide who will win her love. Hidden in the trees, Arcadia can’t bring herself to intervene. Guilt-ridden and confused, she flees to London, England, as she says, looking for protection from violence through knowledge, through explanations, but not through love. Only when she meets Amir, her new lover, whom she discovers to be an (idealistic) passport forger, does she begin her reconciliation with her past.

The Rules of Engagement is an exceptional second novel from rising literary star Catherine Bush. A powerful exploration of what love is, the emotional borders we must cross in order to try and attain it, and the responsibilities inherent in its possession, The Rules of Engagement is also a compelling literary thriller, as Arcadia’s past rushes up to meet her, and her future almost leaves her behind.

With its strong and lyrically evocative prose that moves from 1980s university life in Toronto to the gritty, yet vibrant atmosphere of today’s London, The Rules of Engagement has an extraordinary sense of time and place, and a thoughtful, timely focus that both touches the heart and engages the mind.

Arcadia Hearne fled Canada for Britain ten years ago after witnessing her two young lovers fight a duel in a Toronto ravine. A conflict specialist with London’s Centre for Contemporary War Studies, the reclusive 31-year-old has since become adept at avoiding all forms of risk &@151 geopolitical and romantic. But when her activist sister persuades her to deliver a package to a Somali refugee, Arcadia is forced to confront the hidden violence of her past and to embrace the dangerous possibilities of the present. Wendy Van Riesen’s eloquent reading captures the emotional tension and intellectual rigor of this tautly constructed literary thriller about love and apathy in the era of Rwanda. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

CATHERINE BUSH is the author of the novel Minus Time, which was shortlisted for the 1994 SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and a City of Toronto Book Award and published internationally. It is currently being adapted for the big screen. Born in Toronto, Bush has also resided in Montreal, New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts, and has a degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University. She now lives in Toronto.