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5.0étoiles sur 5
Review of "Angel Wing Splash Pattern", Oct. 25 2006
Magical. Mysterious. Powerful. Intense. Hilarious. Hauntingly beautiful. Original. Crushingly sad. More real than most people will live in one lifetime.
If you do one good thing for yourself today, go out and get your hands on a copy of this book. Beg, borrow, or steal in you have to, because this book will take you to places you never dreamed possible.
Sometimes, once in a blue moon, you find an author who has the power to spin the reader right into the skin of the character. You don't have any choice, you pick up the story, read one line, and BAM, you are that character. You see the world through their eyes, you hear what they hear, you breath the air that they breath, and you feel every exquisite emotion that passes through their heart. You might not like that character and you might not like their life, but from first line to last line, you have been removed from your own world and put into another, regardless of the consequences this might have for you.
Angel Wing Splash Pattern, is a collection of 9 short stories about modern day life in the NWT. There is no escaping the truth, the reality and the humanity in these stories, for Van Camp has this uncanny ability to instantly bring his reader to the heart of each and every one of his characters.
It sort of feels like Van Camp was given a shot of truth serum with every story he told, and sometimes the truth is sad, sometimes the truth is ugly and sometimes the truth is so touching beautiful you can hardly breath. He weaves a fine thread of hope through each piece, like a tiny lifeline to the sometimes shocked and reeling reader, who is desperately grasping for a sign that life can change and that other times, begging that it will always stay the same. He knows, better than most, the difference between both.
Van Camp is a man of few words. When I hit the last page, I said out loud, in an almost disbelieving voice, "That's it? It's over? Nooooo. I want more. I want just one more story." I felt very much like my story teller was standing up, leaving the room and telling me to get to sleep.
"Just one more story," I begged outloud. Of course, that was it, so I lay on my bed, holding the book to my chest, and stared at my ceiling for a very long time, savoring and replaying various scenes in my head. This book is a gem. So do yourself a favor, and go out and buy this. You won't, I promise you, regret it.
(This review comes with one set of instructions. Set aside enough time to read this cover to cover without interruptions. You will not want to be torn away from these stories for any reason. Trust me on that. Cover to cover.)
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Richard Van Camp uncovers truth..., Oct. 31 2005
"Richard Van Camp uncovers truths in his fiction, his work so electric alive with human experience it sings and hollers, whispers seductively, cries, moans, chuckles. His voice is young and old at the same time, the double vision of a deep talent, a fearless intellect. His stories are a new territory of his own making, a powerful place of sex and love and compassion and forgiveness."Susan Power, author of The Grass Dancer and Roofwalker
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Its not often that I sob out loud and out in public but..., Oct. 31 2005
Carol Morin - Host Canada Now/Northbeat CBC TV NorthRecommends:
Angel Wing Splash Pattern
By Richard Van Camp
Kegedonce Press 2002 It's not often that I sob out loud and out in public. But that's how moved I became reading this book of short stories by NWT Dogrib author Richard Van Camp. I was on a plane, flying from Edmonton to Yellowknife, when I met an
unsavory and drunken "Torchy" in Van Camp's book.
Torchy is one of the main characters in the opening story, called "Mermaids". I didn't like Torchy. Too much of a loser for me.
He knows very little about Aboriginal culture and Spirituality. He knows even less about respect. I mean, for gawd's sake, the guy goes to a Medicine person to have his hands blessed so that he can win at bingo? Then there is the foreshadowing that Van Camp so masterfully excels at. We know that Torchy is a pyromaniac. But is he also a pedophile? That underlying premise creates gut-wrenching tension for the reader, after Torchy finds himself alone, in a run down apartment, with a young native girl. And I mean girl. At her age, she should be out on the street only to sell girl guide cookies. Instead, Van Camp has her literally picking up the drunk Torchy off the street, outside a downtown bar. She brings him home to sleep it off. It's around midnight. Torchy wakes up to the young girl touching him. She's putting Barbie band-aids on his feet and arms. "Doesn't she know who I am? And why is she alone? Where's her mom?" The words resonate, as you realize that a drunken stranger is alone in a room with a young girl. She's defenseless and utterly alone. But is she in danger? Yes, but the threat does not come from Torchy. It is, instead, neglect, apathy, dysfunction. As a reader, I felt the young girls' loneliness. That's when I cried.
Her story was there in the pages of Van Camp's book. But I have seen it too many times in real life. Then there's the twist, as Van Camp takes us deeper into the psyche of both characters.
We realize that Torchy has a good heart afterall, no evil intent, even though his life in general is a mess. We realize that the goodness given to him by Creator is even strong enough to support this young girl, who for all intents and purposes has been abandoned by everyone but this drunken stranger she met tonight. Torchy knows this and does not want to see this young girl walking the same road that he, apparently, is on and feels unable to get off. It is a story of belonging, tenderness and acceptance of circumstance and self.
Of course not all the stories in Angel Wing Splash Pattern touch your heart in a sadly profound way, a lot of them made me laugh out loud. A belly laugh. You'll have to pick the book up for yourself, and enjoy.
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