Bookworm, no. 159
Cheryl Bell reviews Cordelia Strube’s “At Sea in a Sieve.” Emily Mernin on Mirion Malle’s “Beware Her Fury.” Terry Fox’s heroic run. Inside the July/August issue.
At Sea in a Sieve
Cordelia Strube
ECW Press
560 pages, softcover and ebook
In Cordelia Strube’s At Sea in a Sieve, Ray Seawright, a superior court judge in Toronto and the single mother of three-year-old Armada, is swamped. Already struggling with the recent death of her best friend, as well as unresolved questions about her mother’s drowning in the bathtub, Ray now must deal with her younger brother being released from prison; with her nanny, Vee, leaving for Portugal to nurse her grandmother; and with an ex, Diego, unexpectedly reappearing and quickly deducing that he is Armada’s father.
Ray goes head-to-head with her chaotic life armed with an internal compendium of philosophical quotations and the five boxing rules her father taught her—starting with “Tighten your fists so much they hurt.” She puts her “heart on ice” to deal with cases when she knows justice will not prevail. She negotiates with noisy neighbours and reasons with Armada, who is hitting her stuffed toys and a boy at daycare. And she deftly handles the eccentricities of her colleagues on the bench. But in the hothouse atmosphere of Christmas in Calgary—with her father, stepmother, and brother—Ray finally cracks.
Ray and Armada escape to rural Portugal to spend time with Vee. Surrounded by fig trees, an orange grove, and farm animals, Ray’s life is still troubled, but she finds the unchanging village atmosphere “rejuvenating.” Her headaches disappear and even the lines in her face soften. “I’ve wanted to smash things up rather than rearrange them,” Ray realizes on a hill, surrounded by sheep. “Now...I gently rearrange the landscape, nudging the rocks into place, experiencing an almost narcotic surge of accomplishment.” Having found meaning again, Ray knows she must return home, learn to embrace uncertainty, and stop judging herself.
—Cheryl Bell
Beware Her Fury
Mirion Malle
Translated by Aleshia Jensen and Isadora Jensen
Drawn & Quarterly
224 pages, softcover and ebook
“Things repair themselves,” Imane assures her new girlfriend, Clémence. “Maybe not alone, and not easily, either. But slowly, and surely.” This piece of wisdom—offered while the couple is lying in bed—comes up throughout Mirion Malle’s Beware Her Fury. Despite the simplicity, it is a truth that often evades Clémence, especially on her bad days.
Translated into English by Aleshia Jensen and Isadora Jensen, the graphic novel follows Clémence through a difficult period of healing after a sexual assault. The red-haired, extroverted tattoo artist has been struggling through waves of rage and despair. “How can you believe in justice with everything that’s going on?” she asks her therapist, who encourages the thirty-year-old to join a local group for survivors. Over the course of fifteen weekly sessions, Clémence opens up about her experience, her insecurities, and her fears surrounding her burgeoning relationship with Imane. She also learns from the other participants. “We listen to each other—and we cry a lot—but we smile a lot too,” Malle writes on one standout page, above nine wordless panels showing the teary-eyed group members talking. Between these gatherings, readers glimpse Clémence’s distinctly Montreal social life: She frequents parks and queer bars with friends (they sing karaoke at what could only be Notre-Dame-des-Quilles). She and Imane get popsicles from depanneurs, as well as vegan sorbet from Les Givrés.
In these juxtaposed narratives, Malle carefully portrays the nonlinear and uncomfortable nature of healing while trying to live a normal life—and only sometimes succeeding. This tension comes up for other women as often as it does for Clémence. “It was as if all the work I had done up until then was erased,” a sixty-seven-year-old participant admits, after getting an email about her abuser. “Like I’d regressed.” This is an intense story, carefully told.
—Emily Mernin
From the Archives: Long Weekend, Long Run
Yesterday was Simcoe Day in Ontario, Heritage Day in Alberta, and Natal Day in Nova Scotia. Of course, don’t forget about British Columbia Day, Saskatchewan Day, and New Brunswick Day! It was also Terry Fox Day in Manitoba. For a unique look at Fox’s heroic Marathon of Hope back in 1980, jog on over to our March 2024 review of Bill Vigars’s Terry & Me. (As we’ve been doing lately, we’ve unlocked our paywall for this one.)
Inside the July/August Issue
“It’s not clear, for instance, when cats entered our homes, let alone our hearts. But a 2004 excavation in southern Cyprus hinted that a thirty-year-old was buried with a pet cat around 7500 BCE.” Kyle Wyatt curls up with Cats: A History, by Rod Phillips.
Jude Isabella on Susan Cormier’s Dead Bees Still Sting: Tales of Life at the Edge of Nature.
“In time, all of her siblings left, first her brother, for Winnipeg, then all three sisters, for marriage in Taiwan, until only she remained—the last one still tethered to her adoptive city.” Jack Wang reviews The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street, by Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho.
And much more!
The piece on Strube's book is not a review, it is simply a summary of several events in the story.
The level of literary acumen in this publication sinks lower and lower.