Damage Done by the Storm [Hardcover]

Jack Hodgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2004

Every story is so different that there is something for everyone here. “Balance” is a story about a bored and (we think) boring orthotics sculptor – until we find that he has fallen in love with the feet of one of his distant patients, and has done something about it. “This Summer’s House” describes a Vancouver Island family that rents a new summer house each year for the central event, a great family get-together that reminds us of a modern version of Chekhov. “Over Here” is an innocent story told by a 10-year-old boy who tries to keep the secret that the girl next door is an Indian.

“Damage Done by the Storm” shows us Ottawa picking up after a snowfall as the central character, a retired senator, tries to keep his word to his grandson by getting to an important event. “Galleries” has a Faulkner scholar and her photographer son touring Mississippi to learn about the writer, and learning about themselves. “Promise” shows what happens when a former high-school principal visits a former pupil twenty years on. “The Crossing” is a taut story of an “ordinary” woman’s life exploding. “Inheritance” tells how a Vancouver Island couple learn that their uncle in Ottawa plans to leave everything to them, in what proves to be a mixed blessing. “Astonishing the Blind” has a Canadian pianist in Germany writing home to congratulate her parents on their wedding anniversary, only to reveal terrible secrets about two marriages – and to reveal links between some of the stories.

The geographic range is wide – Australia, Germany, Ottawa, Edmonton, Mississippi and, as home base, the Vancouver Island logging and farming communities that feature in Spit Delaney’s Island and other books by Jack Hodgins.The range of characters is just as wide, and many of these people are unforgettably larger than life, while still being utterly believable. In summary, a terrific collection of stories that will delight readers and renew the Jack Hodgins debate about the comparative excellence of his novels and his short stories.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gentle yet unsettling, [the stories show] promise of a melodrama or climax that morphs into something far less easy or obvious.… powerful and challenging…”
–Quill & Quire

From the Inside Flap

Every story is so different that there is something for everyone here. "Balance" is a story about a bored and (we think) boring orthotics sculptor - until we find that he has fallen in love with the feet of one of his distant patients, and has done something about it. "This Summer's House" describes a Vancouver Island family that rents a new summer house each year for the central event, a great family get-together that reminds us of a modern version of Chekhov. "Over Here" is an innocent story told by a 10-year-old boy who tries to keep the secret that the girl next door is an Indian.

"Damage Done by the Storm" shows us Ottawa picking up after a snowfall as the central character, a retired senator, tries to keep his word to his grandson by getting to an important event. "Galleries" has a Faulkner scholar and her photographer son touring Mississippi to learn about the writer, and learning about themselves. "Promise" shows what happens when a former high-school principal visits a former pupil twenty years on. "The Crossing" is a taut story of an "ordinary" woman's life exploding. "Inheritance" tells how a Vancouver Island couple learn that their uncle in Ottawa plans to leave everything to them, in what proves to be a mixed blessing. "Astonishing the Blind" has a Canadian pianist in Germany writing home to congratulate her parents on their wedding anniversary, only to reveal terrible secrets about two marriages - and to reveal links between some of the stories.

The geographic range is wide - Australia, Germany, Ottawa, Edmonton, Mississippi and, as home base, the Vancouver Island logging and farming communities that feature in Spit Delaney's Island and other books by Jack Hodgins.The range of characters is just as wide, and many of these people are unforgettably larger than life, while still being utterly believable. In summary, a terrific collection of stories that will delight readers and renew the Jack Hodgins debate about the comparative excellence of his novels and his short stories.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0771041527
• ISBN-13: 978-0771041525
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,275,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whatever happened to Dora?, October 21, 2004

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Damage Done by the Storm (Hardcover)

Relating short stories must be the most ancient form of human communication. From that far-off time when evolution granted us a "voice box" and a brain capable of expanded memory, "telling tales" clearly became a feature in our lives. The hunting expedition, the new discovery resulting from a random trek, "what happened to Og during the storm", was surely the way time was spent around the campfire after the evening meal. When speech moved to print, the tradition was carried on to the page. Nearly supplanted by books growing ever bulkier, filled with too-often turgid text, the short story, in the hands of the right author, returns us to readable prose.

Jack Hodgins is the "right author" in nearly every sense. His entry into Canadian literature was through a prize-winning collection of tales of his home ground - Spit Delaney's Island. There was a phase of fusion with The Barclay Family Theatre, a set of vignettes of Canadian life. From that book, almost as if waiting in the wings, came The Macken Charm, in which another family is portrayed in rather unsettling circumstances. Yet another family situation, covering vast distances, is his recently released Distance When "family values" are considered an important aspect, Hodgins is able to convey many facets of that ideal.

This collection of ten fine stories combines and enlarges on Hodgins' frequently applied theme of family. His long writing experience has granted him abilities to characterise matched by few, if any, authors. The opening story will jolt most readers, yet the young man depicted is anything but a fantasy. This story of compulsion is followed by a "cottage season" tale - the consummate Canadian situation. In Hodgins' account, there are some new twists to what likely would become mundane in the hands of a lesser talent. In yet another tale, the Mackens' return to confront what, for them, is the least desireable circumstance. Distant events compel attention to off-Island issues. Mackens must not only leave their little Island habitat, but travel to that, for them, most inauspicious place - Ottawa. It's a question of inheritance, perhaps the one thing that can disrupt family life the most severely.

Of course, the title story compels the Ottawa reader to wonder - "Is this another Ice Storm collection? Are we going to read about snapped hydro lines, treacherous streets, chilled houses and shattered aboreal stands?" Not quite. There is a storm, but it's the more typical deposition of a metre of snow. There's a downed tree, but it reclines in solitary insolence on a railroad track. The damage lies elsewhere, in the memories of a retired Senator still living in Ottawa. Coming from British Columbia, Alfred Buckle is still uneasy with snow after all these years. It's not negotiating snow-covered streets that impairs him, but the recollections of other times and places. He's on his way to the Grand Opening of his grandson's new establishment. It's a meaningful event, but one tree may disrupt the journey. Will he arrive on time? More important to Alfred, will he be welcome when he does show up?

There is a gem tucked away in these pages. In Australia, Russell Drysdale produced his renowned painting, The Drover's Wife. It qas long celebrated as typifying the bleak existence of those mustering cattle or sheep. Australian author Murray Bail finally "identified" the subject in the painting with a hilarious account of a deserting wife. In Hodgins' collection, her career takes yet another step with her emigration to Canada. In his portrait, the Drover's Wife typifies the problems and promise British Columbia faces in dealing with its most precious natural resource. Hodgins does more than simply graft West Coast conditions to an outstanding and humourous Australian episode. He brings "Hazel" to life in ways that lie beyond what even Bail accomplished. In fact, this lively story has many messages.

Not all the tales here are rollicking family disputes or clashes over distant possessions. In "The Crossing", Hodgins follows a passenger on the BC Ferries system. She stands alone, at first, contemplating the approaching coast and mountain background. She's done this trip before. It seems to be a family trait to travel - sometimes great distances. Her father, deluded that he would fare better in the South Pacific, slips away in a sailboat. Her sister Dora, convinced that she's received secret messages from an alien spaceship, fled into those mountains backdropping the city. What then, is Leanne's purpose in making this crossing? Is this truly the shopping trip she announced before departing?

Hodgins is a unique talent, possessed of strengths any writer will admire and any reader will encounter with delight. We need more such.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]