The Ravine, by Paul Quarrington (Random House of Canada $29.95)

Reviewed by Mary Wolfe

 

“I’d love to. But I’m somewhat busy these days. Working on a book, kind of a memoir. Only I’m calling it a novel because my memory is so fuzzy.”

 

The Ravine, by Paul Quarrington, is a self-conscious novel about, well, writing this very book! The reader is drawn in to this concept within the first few lines when the narrator, Phil McQuigge (initials P. mc Q.), is having a conversation with a distress call worker who seems to know him quite well. “I just called to say, um, I won’t be calling anymore. I mean, it’s been pleasant getting to know you all, but maybe it’s taken up a little bit too much of my time. And I need time, now, I need lots of it. … Because I’m working on a book” called “The Ravine.”

 

This book is very clever & funny, but also speaks to something deep within all of us. Whether or not we care to acknowledge it by writing it down, we all have a “ravine” story from our youth buried somewhere in our not so clear memories; an incident that remains and haunts us throughout our lives.  The problem is we can’t always remember exactly what happened or why it has vaguely plagued our consciousness.

 

As readers, we often face the challenge of reading a piece of fiction that seems to be based on a real life incident; or we read a memoir and feel certain that liberties have been taken to enhance the readability of the memoir (remember James Frey’s Million Little Pieces?). The Ravine plays with both of these literary struggles. Phil McQuigge, the narrator, admits, “Setting out on this novelizing journey, I have some doubts about my visual memory. I read an interview with Alice Munro once … who said that when she was shown a black-and-white photograph of her grade two (or something) class, she could recall the colour of everyone’s blouse, sweater, skirt. Shown a picture of my grade two class, I would be challenged to pick out myself, were it not for the huge clue of my spectacles.”

 

And so, Phil McQuigge takes us on his self-deprecating journey to find out the truth of his ravine story – when he was eleven and his brother, Jay, was ten. Phil frequently reminds us that he is writing a book about this very journey, cleverly using literary techniques that are as self-conscious as the story itself.

 

This book will remind you of an episode from “The Twilight Zone.’ Those of us over a certain age will understand how a Twilight Zone story draws you in, takes you down a path and then abruptly and cunningly blindsides you. I’m willing to bet that both Phil McQuigge and Paul Quarrington were Twilight Zone fanatics. The lesson learned from this ravine story comes from Rod Serling himself: “There’s nothing in the dark that’s not there when the lights are on.”