When trying to find this book on amazon.com to provide the review link, it was remarkably hard. Amazon.com wants me to buy cologne, to buy sheet music, ANYTHING. The first book example I could find was in French. This book won the 2010 Governor’s General Award, surely it couldn’t be that obscure? Poor Can Lit, still neglected by the rest of the world.
Cool Water is set in a fictional Saskatchewan farming community, and takes place over the course of about a day. In the way of stories such as these (Stuart MacLean, Alice Munro, Garrison Keillor), tiny little events have giant repercussions in such static environments. The book focuses primarily on a few residents, with some background players floating through the chapters, each told from various points of view. It sometimes felt more like a collection of short stories rather than a novel. There are moments of happiness in the story, with revelations of love from a few characters. Those portions of the story that were tinged with frustration, disappointment, and regret, seemed a bit quieter and more real. In particular, the bank manager’s day, overmanaged by his wife, resigned to his pregnant teenage daughter’s ill-advised engagement, and haunted by the failure of his neighbours farms, was particularly well drawn.
A few chapters in, I thought that this was the most Canadian book I had read in years, but maybe it is more a small town Western type of story than distinctly Canadian. It is hard for me to judge, really. Warren’s book certainly gives a strong sense of place, and that particular cooped up feeling you get in a small town, even when the sky is so wide and the land is so flat. Some of the stories are quite beautiful, particularly those that focus on losses, big and small. A few deus ex machina moments kind of mar the natural flow of the narrative – too many remarkable coincidences in one tiny town in one short day. However, it was a interesting departure from my normal reading material and quite enjoyable overall.
A lovely review.