Moriah: A Quartet
by David George Taylor
Buschek Books, 2003
Reviewed by Adam Swimmer
Moriah: A Quartet is the type of book only an academic
could write. With a doctorate from the University of
Toronto and having taught at various universities,
author David George Taylor clearly demonstrates a
strong command of the English language in his book.
However, his precision in word choice makes the
collection of four stories read more like an essay
than fiction. Supposedly thematically connected
through ruminations on father figures, the stories
offer little more than an opportunity for the writer
to make speeches through the characters on the evils
of such things as child molestation, religion and the
Boy Scouts of America.
Taylor has a knack for skipping past the action right
into the exposition. In the story,
'Moriah,' for
instance, Matthias Fortescue has an argument with his
clergyman father, who enlisted him in the Second World
War without his knowledge. Then, the narrative
abruptly jumps to Matthias lying in a hospital bed in
Germany and he's suddenly missing an appendage:
'Matthias produced the stub of his left arm,
which had
been amputated several inches above the elbow, and had
it examined.'
This was one of the many times where the author had
quickly skimmed past integral plot points and I had to
stop reading and utter a confused
'What?' at the
pages. The book explains briefly in the next paragraph
that the Lancaster bomber Matthias was flying was shot
down and the crash mangled his arm.
Even the passages about Matthias' stay in the
German
POW camp have less to do with his survival than with
the correspondence between him and his mother on why
his father had sent him to war. Matthias discovers his
enlistment was his father's religious
sacrifice.
(Moriah is where Abraham takes his son Isaac to kill
him for brownie points with God.) So after a few pages
in which Matthias points out the inconsistencies
between the Old and New Testaments, Matthias is
released from Stalag 14 and sent home. He then has
another fight with his father and the story ends.
'Spy' has the most promising premise of
all the
stories in the book. Set in 1938, it follows Heinrich
Gr'dde, a German immigrant to Canada who
receives a
letter to return home and be debriefed as a spy so he
can infiltrate his new country. He has no intention of
doing this, but his father and nephews still live in
Germany and so he decides to go back in an attempt to
get them to safety. But nothing remotely
espionage-like happens. He simply shows up and gives
them passports. The narrative doesn't follow
them on
their journey, Heinrich just finds out later that
they're safe. And no repercussions occur
whatsoever.
Heinrich doesn't even get in trouble for
skipping his
meeting with the Ministry of the Interior.
Only 'The Other,' Taylor's final
story seems
appropriate for his tell-not-show writing style,
It's
the story of Frederick Appleton Wilberforce Courtney,
a man who still lives at home after his
parents' death
and has nothing to do in his life other than watch his
neighbours and put the garbage out. Though, the story
isn't the least bit interesting.
Risk and sacrifice, I suppose, are the connecting
motifs of this collection: Reverend Fortescue
sacrifices his son to war. Heinrich risks his
livelihood to save his father and nephews in Germany,
and also a young waiter he fears a Nazi jeweller will
molest. Frederick has sacrificed his adult life by
never moving out of his parents' house. And in
'The
Swans,' hobos ride the rails' I guess
that's a risk of
sorts.
But the greatest sacrifice, is the time I spent
reading this book. Perhaps the retired Professor
Taylor should look back at the curriculum for his
English courses he taught to see what makes good
fictional writing as he seems to have missed a few key
elements in his own work. Or perhaps he should just
stick with painting. (He also provided the cover art
for the book.)
But then again, Moriah: A Quartet could have been
worse. It could have been more than 87 pages.
|
