Bonk On The Head
by John-James Ford
Nightwood Editions, 2005
Reviewed by Aaron Tucker
For all the jokes made about the Canadian military, very rarely are they made by a soldier. Ford, a Foreign Service Officer, spins a debut novel ripe with genuine humor and horror, detailing the sordid history of a dysfunctional family and the viciousness of Military College through the eyes of a young man, Herbie.
The novel is driven simultaneously by the absence of Herbie’s sister Gertie, who ran way from home, and the tension between Herbie and his permanently militant father. The novel is strongest where the two points intersect, where Herbie envies and pines for his absent sister but recognizes his own transformation into the abusive and alcoholic father that initially drove Gertie away.
Though the details and story-telling surrounding Herbie’s initiation into Royal Military College are visceral, Ford’s tendency towards exposition of scene often leaves the reader grasping for subtly; there is far too little of Herbie’s reflection on events, only his immediate perceptions and recountings, creating at times a self-absorbed narrative that leans too heavily towards sentimentality.
But the honesty and wit of Herbie’s inevitable self-destruction carries and engages throughout
Bonk, leaving the reader lingering on the questions of what exactly is a good soldier.
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