Book Review: Canada, by Richard Ford

Richard Ford is probably my favorite author. His darkish sensibility, at least what comes through in his books, agrees with my own. His protagonists tend to be passive observers of the events of their life veering (or having had veered) off course. In his brilliant Sportswriter (Frank Bascombe) Triology, the protagonist Frank is a primary instigator of this veering. While in Canada, the protagonist Dell is a 15 year old boy, who watches his parents take their family from normal – his Dad an Air Force Captain at the base in Great Falls, his mother a home maker, he and his sister – to disintegration with one incredibly bad decision.

The reader comes to understand that Dell’s dad, though a decorated and long serving military man, has always had a leaning toward crime. He starts at the base with a small-scale scam that eventually loses him his job. Then, after some months of trying civilian work life (selling cars and real-estate), he gets involved in another scam, becomes indebted to some dangerous individuals, and makes the outlandish decision to rob a bank to cover his modest debt. He is somehow able to convince his sensible wife to help him. They rob the bank, get caught, and the kids go from dreams about hobbies and anticipating school starting in a couple of weeks to being suddenly on their own.

While his sister runs off, being the good son, Dell sticks around and waits for his mother’s friend to whisk him away. The woman takes him north into Canada, to her brother who is an eccentric that has also run from his past in the States, and where it quickly becomes apparent that Dell’s days of observing, and experiencing the consequences of, the bad decisions of adults is not yet over.

Perhaps the main message of the novel is Ford’s insistence that normality and ruin run right up next to each other (even mix together) and are sometimes separated by only a few bad decisions. But also the resiliency of the human spirit and the positive consequences of just a bit of good luck, especially in a young person that is curious about life, is eager to learn, and is willing to remain optimistic through seemingly hopeless situations.

Anyway, the book is ambitious, and Ford pulls it off. The fact that he soldiers on, plying his craft as masterfully as ever at nearly 70, is a gift, and it also makes him an inspiration.