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A Song for Nettie Johnson

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When she was 70, Edmonton, Alberta author Gloria Sawai collected the stories representing a lifetime of work into this spare and magical volume that holds the beauty of the prairie and the pious, poor, dark, and delightful people who live there "on the margins" within its pages. The book won the Governor General's Literary Award in 2002.

Sawai likes the symbolism of stone and grace. Nora Foster Stovel said that the stone suits the "flinty side" of the work and the Governor General's Award said, "The power of grace illuminates her world." Sawai's spartan, plain-spoken use of language may remind some readers of "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf.

The opening novella from which the collection gets its title, "A Song for Nettie Johnson," begins: "From her chair at the edge of the quarry she looks down at the the bottom of the pit--as wide and as long as a garden, as big as a front yard with grass, or the sunny porch of a white mansion far away." The no-nonsense prose evokes the beauty of no-nonsense landscapes and people.

The final story in the book, "The Day I Sat with Jesus on the Sundeck and a Wind Came Up and Blew My Kimono Open and He Saw My Breasts." previously appeared in twelve anthologies. It's not surprising. The title gets one's attention. It has been called blasphemous, and that's nonsense that misses the point and the message and the transcendence of the events of a windy day when Jesus stopped by for a visit.

Speaking of the clarity the world brings to a person during extraordinary events, the protagonist says, "You can imagine how distinctly I remember the day Jesus of Nazareth, in person, climbed the hill in our backyard to our house, then up the outside stairs to the sundeck where I was sitting. And how he stayed with me for awhile. You can surely understand how clearly those details rest in my memory."

Reading "A Song for Nettie Johnson" and "Oh Wild Flock, Oh Crimson Sky" and "The Dolphins" and "The Day I Sat with Jesus on the Sundeck and a Wind Came Up and Blew My Kimono Open and He Saw My Breasts" simultaneously anchors a person to the earth as surely as stone while setting him free into the sky as surely as wind and angels.