Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell

I requested this book after reading what Marcie and Bill had to say about it, quite a while ago now. They read it together for the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize, and it turned out to be the winner.

Arboreality is novella length and made up of inter-connected short stories that are all set in a future with sea level rising, devastating wildfires, and extensive deforestation. The world may be ravaged, but we are just witness to a few select characters in a few select areas in and around British Columbia. How are these people moving forward? How are they helping to make life better for their families and loved ones? Because this is where we’ll be: isolated with each other in our own part of the world. We’re so used to knowing what’s happening globally, it’s hard to imagine what that would look like. For these people it involves learning how to break away from old ways of thinking, as well as trying to keep the arts alive.

“It is important to be close to those you love, so you can reach out and touch them as the universe shrinks to a valley, a street, a room.”

Stillwater by Darcie Friesen Hossack (Tidewater Press)

Twice now, Lizzy’s father has almost let her mother die. Then, he took the family away from their home and school to a place called Stillwater – a commune for Seventh Day Adventists – where Lizzy has been assigned to work in the greenhouse. Her father has severe anger issues and her mother is addicted to painkillers. The young man Lizzy works in the greenhouse with is starting to get weird. And now, her brother Zach has been seen being kissed by another boy.

Lizzy has to decide what to do, because she knows she cannot stay at Stillwater.

Stillwater is a thought-provoking story about Faith, clashing religions, power imbalances, and family conflict. Each character and their relationship with others is examined; things are not black and white – there are many grey areas to consider. I wanted to hate Lizzy’s dad, but I couldn’t. I wanted to love her mom, but I couldn’t do that either. Lizzy herself isn’t always easy to like, but she’s smart and she cares.

“Dad might not want to hurt us. But if he ends up doing it anyway, then what’s the difference?”

One thing I loved about this book is that each chapter is titled after a meal that is eaten or served at some point in the chapter and the recipe itself is provided at the end. I tried Mrs. Schlant’s Walnut Patties and they were good! There are a couple I might never want to make, like the banana and tomato sandwiches.

The story is contemporary and set during Covid times, which comes through in the story in a realistic way without making the book about the pandemic. Masks are worn at times (or not), and there are conspiracy theories floating around the peripheries. I thought it was well-done. “The virus is a test, brother. A test of believers.”

In the Acknowledgments, the author discloses that she shares many of her characters’ experiences in the book, primarily that she grew up the daughter of a Mennonite mother and a Seventh-day Adventist father. Her first book is Mennonites Don’t Dance.

The Cobra and the Key by Sam Shelstad (Touchwood Editions)

This book had me in stitches. The narrator, who has the same name as the author, is a cashier at Value Village who is an unpublished writer. This book is his first draft of an advice book for other writers, but it’s awful (and hilarious). He comes across as self-important and pompous, believing his novels-in-progress are on the verge of being accepted for publishing; that it’s a done deal. Sam’s most recent novel-in-progress is a work of autofiction based on his relationship with a woman 40 years his senior. He uses his ideas for this novel when giving writing advice, which is the (real) author’s unique way of telling Sam’s story. Delightfully, Sam also draws on examples from the works of great authors like Henry James and Alice Munro. He’s very hard to feel contempt for because you’ll be too busy feeling sorry for him. The best way to fully understand what the real Sam Shelstad is doing is to read it yourself. You won’t be sorry.

Here are a few examples of his great advice:

Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang

I didn’t find this an easy read–the middle felt a bit too long and the food descriptions didn’t even do anything for me–but it was an interesting one. I liked the premise as well as the ideas that were presented: a persistent smog leads to food shortage and a young chef takes the opportunity to escape to an uber-rich community where the air is still clean and there is whatever you could possibly imagine to eat, but where things are ethically questionable, and an employer who expects odd things from her. There are some great passages and one-liners.

“Crudeness came sheathed in that genteel accent, the blade so fine it took a beat to feel its deep, sudden bite.”

“Life, as they say, must go on, and go on, and go on, even when you cannot see the sense in it.”

“What sustains in the end are doomed romances, and nicotine, and crappy peanut butter, damn the additives and cholesterol because life is finite and not all nourishment can be measured.”

“Fear fueled a country so intent in perfection that they would give up the world.”

What have you been reading from the library lately?

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