Comment

Dec 07, 2016
These are beautiful stories, that show Vanderhaeghe’s remarkable range, sometimes using an omniscient third person narrator, sometimes telling a story in the first person, and each first person narrator having his own distinctive voice. (None of the stories are told by women.) One of the best stories, Chevy Bel Air, tells how teenage heartbreak leads a 16-year old boy to flee his Saskatchewan farm and find a job in the Alberta oil patch. Vanderhaeghe isn’t a political writer, but in this story he chronicles one individual in what was a big population movement from Saskatchewan to Alberta. While there are big emotions playing out in the foreground of his story, one can also see the big demographic movement that is its background. The title story “Daddy Lenin”, is not as its title suggests, about Communism. Daddy Lenin is the nickname of the history professor who started off as the narrator’s thesis advisor. Although not a long story, most people will find a sense of recognition in it. Who hasn’t wondered at one point or another if an acquaintance’s interest in a controversial subject might not reflect an unadmitted prejudice, like Daddy Lenin’s interest in French Anti-Semitic writers? More personally, who hasn’t wondered if a former mentor has not in some way spoiled their career and made it much less than it might have been? Vanderhaeghe should just keep on writing as he does. No-one should give him any advice, as what he writes is marvellous.