Customer Reviews

Perilous Departures

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Margaret Macpherson's debut collection of short stories are works of concentrated symbol and grace. The most striking feature of these stories is the holographic nature of the writing: plot, symbol, dialogue and character all move the story forward while also containing the story within themselves. In "Potted Palm", a Native felon from the local jail spends Christmas with a family. Reflecting the uneasy race relations between whites and Natives, the children are fascinated and frightened by their visitor, having convinced themselves he is is murderer. When they work up the courage to ask him what prison is like, he replies "Prison can live in your head, but light lives in your heart". In "Autumn Fields", a baby buggy tossed into a dump miraculously unfolds "spinning its wheels in midair . . . It hangs suspended, beautiful and terrible" seconds before it is crushed by a large mechanical arm. The image captures the blossoming and abrupt transitions of motherhood. Margaret Macpherson has kneaded her stories so the essential elements leaven each other. Her tales are satisfying and unexpectedly moving.

Among her many strengths, Margaret Macpherson has an ear for the rhythm of language: "Nice, but nice for someone else", "Jimmy the Wind", "quips and quizzles". She is unsentimental about the passions motherhood: a son is out past his curfew and his anxious mother vacillates between tenderness ("If he comes now, I will let him sleep late") and outrage ("I will kill him"). The author is a shrewd observer of power games between the sexes: a flag girl takes off her cap to let "her hair fall to her shoulders, reminding everyone she was not only female, but THE female". Macpherson's humor is a strong force in the book: a child in Disneyland reflects "Minnie might have a gun in her red purse. You have to be careful around Americans . . ." A minor drawback of the book is the occasional small flaw in diction, noticeable only because the writing is otherwise so seamless.

One theme in the stories is life in the North. "There are only two seasons in the North. One is the season of light and the other is the season of darkness". The stories describe how the immensity of the northern landscape and the brutality of its climate make a permanent imprint on the feelings and the symbol system of its inhabitants. Another theme in the book is young girls coming of age. Sexuality is by turns danger, currency and new territory to discover. A young girl tells a scientist in an asbestos suit "I wanted to find out for myself. I was supposed to be keeping people away, but nobody told me from what." The domestic dramas of family life are also explored: "The worst rows we had, Mike and I, were about the baby."

The language of these stories is pruned and plain; the subject matter is deceptively commonplace. A woman considers making a will. A high school girl observes a chubby friend fall in love. However, Macpherson understands how ordinary things shimmer with extraordinary meaning: "the X (in the name Alexis) is stitched in black beads like a secret mark on a treasure map". A blue glass plate "captures the morning sun" and draws a messenger to the house. The stories are structured to bring the reader's attention to the mystery of universal forces operating within ordinary lives, and the power of individual intention: "The piano knows we will bring it home" thinks a struggling single mother at an auction.

This is a superb collection of short stories by an author who uses down to earth language and everyday events to convey the depth and power of unseen forces through image, plot and character. It will appeal to readers who like a good tale well told and who who appreciate "life's chaotic splendor".

August 2004

In Perilous Departures by Margaret Macpherson, nearly every story gave me goose bumps, although for different reasons. The unusual variety of locales piqued me as well as the absolute believability of people I have not known, but now feel I do. This is quite astonishing. My favorite stories were Raising Cade, The Chinese and Going Down. I loved this book.

Joyce Harries
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada