Alexis's beguiling stories feel like a search for home

31-05-2025

André Alexis has never let his novels worry too much about reality — witness, for example, the talking dogs in his 2015 masterpiece Fifteen Dogs. In his most recent novel, 2021's Ring, Aphrodite's ring allows the wearer to wish three changes in her beloved. The foremothers of one of the protagonists, Gwen, used the ring to change their men. Should she? Intriguing love relationships and philosophizing about love follow.
His new story collection Other Worlds is more puzzling. That the soul of Tam Modeste, an old Trinidadian buyeis (a Carib shaman), enters a dying 11-year-old boy in Petrolia, Ont., seems like the Toronto-based Alexis's attempt to make a gut-level connection with his lost Trinidadian past — a past that recedes the more he tries to grasp it. Almost a novella within the collection, Contrition: An Isekai is the most captivating story of the nine pieces in the collection.
Waking up in Paul Williams, Tam hates the sound of English (except for Ogden Nash). Paul's parents, though celebrating their dead son's revival, are troubled by this new, not-so-huggable version, less so the hugging mother than the father, who finds it harder to hide his promiscuity from a buyeis than from an adolescent. In Alexis's hands, the dual soul becomes a way of expressing an estrangement from Canada, although eventually the boy becomes more Paul than Tam.
Jamie Hogge photo
André Alexis
Even stranger is The Bridle Path, in which the lawyer telling the story wants very badly to fit in with an über-wealthy group around his client Edward Bryson. 'It felt,' the lawyer says, 'as if I'd arrived somewhere I belonged.'
Thus, when Bryson's wife Miranda explains that the main meat dish at the party is a boy, the lawyer isn't sure whether to take her literally, metaphorically or ironically. Is cannibalism a shibboleth to keep out the unsophisticated?
The lawyer doesn't want to commit a faux pas that might nudge him out of the group. Alexis, however, hints that that he isn't quite as tight with Bryson as he imagines: one of the parties at which he feels honoured to be a guest is 'for tradespeople' who have helped Bryson.
Despite the humour — the lawyer, for example, feels 'chastised' when, after he shows dismay at the meat dish, Bryson calls him an 'accountant' — the story is too macabre to enjoy, and Alexis's ending never answers the lawyer's confusion.
Without the specific critiques in Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (to which Alexis alludes), it's difficult to discern the target of the satire. Is it rich people generally? If so, that seems unfair. Or is Alexis telling a lawyer joke, mocking the narrator for ultimately fitting in so well as a factotum to the wealthy, the equivalent of today's Todd Blanche to Donald Trump?
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Other stories go in a variety of directions; one concerns another buyeis, and one another son who, much like Paul, speculates about his unfaithful Trinidadian father.
In the final piece An Elegy (an essay, not a story), Alexis explicitly states that his writing is a 'search for home' which, he soon adds, is 'Trinidad, circa 1957' — in other words, the country and year in which he was born. He concludes that his father wanted to escape his home territory, Belmont in Port of Spain.
Other Worlds
Alexis also reveals that for a year in his youth, he traded the name he didn't like — André — for a name he did: Paul.
Here and elsewhere, Alexis's work has the air of a puzzle. If you can answer the questions posed in Other Worlds — 'What is a rabbit when tied to a sofa?' or 'When is a lake most likely to yield?' — then you're ready for Alexis. (Spoiler alert: the answers are 'Western' and 'midnight.')
Reinhold Kramer is a Brandon University English professor. His most recent book is Are We Postmodern Yet? And Were We Ever?.

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Cambridge author Melanie Stevenson talks about blending faith and fiction in her writing

CBC

9 hours ago

Cambridge author Melanie Stevenson talks about blending faith and fiction in her writing

Cambridge author Melanie Stevenson published her first book, One More Tomorrow, in September 2019 after years of writing just for herself. The book garnered praise and earned multiple awards, including best new Canadian author at the 2020 Word Guild Awards. Here most recent work is a novella that appeared in a Christmas story collection last all fall. While she's known for romance, Stevenson also writes devotional books, non-fiction, poetry and articles. Stevenson spoke with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's Josette Lafleur on The Morning Edition about the process of switching between genres and how faith plays a role in her writing. Audio of this interview appears at the bottom of this page. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Josette Lafleur: So your most recent story is Where My Heart Belongs. It's in a Christmas collection called I'll Be Home. Tell us about that story. Melanie Stevenson: That story follows Christmas with Portia Ivy, who is actually trying to avoid Christmas. She's in Quebec City over the holidays. She's giving a keynote address, which she thinks has failed miserably and is leaving on a train to go back to Toronto to escape Christmas in the Bahamas. But an ice storm comes in and she actually gets stranded. It shows the story of her actually meeting this bell ringing Santa on the streets while she's slipping around in her high heels. He actually ends up being the one who quasi-rescues her for Christmas and brings her back to his family home and she ends up having to face Christmas and all that it entails. Josette Lafleur: This is written in first person, which is a little different. Why did you decide to do that? Melanie Stevenson: Well, it was the first crack I actually did at first person. I actually took a real risk in talking directly to the reader on several occasions throughout the book. So you kind of are right beside her, kind of hand holding her and she's talking to you as though you're becoming friends a bit. So it's a bit of a different approach. It takes a moment to get used to, but it's quirky. It's a romantic comedy. It's kind of a laugh out loud romp. It's a lot of fun, a nice light read. Josette Lafleur: You've also written One More Tomorrow, which is a novel. What's that one about? Melanie Stevenson: That one was actually my first book. I wrote that at the age of 31 when my kids were little and then waited to publish it. It follows about a 10-year span in the life of Katie Banks. She's an aspiring artist and we see her first at her first year of university. She has basically put up walls. She's been hurt and she said, you know, I'm not letting love in. So she's keeping her distance. Justin Burke comes into the picture and sort of knocks at her defences and she ends up leaving for Paris to study abroad and places some much needed distance. She ends up returning to Cambridge and she reunites with her first love. A bit of tragedy happens in that part of the story. In about a 10-year span we see her as an established artist and we find out who she ends up with. Josette Lafleur: You also have a book that's very different called Soul Focus, which is a devotional book. Can you explain what that book is about and how people can use it? Melanie Stevenson: It's sort of 31 days of daily readings that will help you. It's catered to if you're struggling or you're going through a hard time. These are daily encouragements that you would read. It has a verse and then a little blessing at the end to sort of uplift you for the day if you're struggling through certain things. Josette Lafleur: Your books are all published by a Christian publisher. What role does faith play in your writing? Melanie Stevenson: It threads throughout all of my writing. I write a blog and I also write magazine articles and all of them have a faith element to encourage you in your walk with God. One More Tomorrow is a bit more overt and Where My Heart Belongs is a little lighter. She's not a believer until a certain portion in the book. Soul Focus is definitely to encourage you and your faith. Josette Lafleur: What happens in your brain when you're writing all of these different things? Melanie Stevenson: I find that writing articles, the blogs and the devotionals are very short. So what it does is it makes you tighten up your writing. Even in a book you're still always like, is this driving the plot? Is this moving along? Is this on the topic that I'm dealing with in this chapter? So it all kind of overlaps and helps each other. Josette Lafleur: You also write poetry, but you haven't published it. What pushes you to write so much? Melanie Stevenson: I started writing when I was young. I spent copious amounts of time in my room doing all the arts. So I just naturally started writing poems, especially throughout high school and university. I have binders of poetry. It's just the beauty of words, especially poetry. I find that you have to choose the exact word and just the beauty and succinctness that poetry offers. It translates into my fiction because I find that as you write sentences it can be really quite literary and poetic, depending on what you're writing. Josette Lafleur: Are there plans to publish a poetry book? Melanie Stevenson: Not at this point. Sometimes I'll take a photo and put the poetry to it online. That's as far as I've gone with that. Josette Lafleur: Most people might see writing as a pretty solitary experience, but you actually have a group of author friends and you guys all support each other. Tell me about what it means to have that kind of a connection with other authors? Melanie Stevenson: It's massive. The actual act of writing is very solitary. I have this group, we call ourselves the Fab Four, and we get together several times a year. We'll go to a cottage retreat and we'll just write, we'll share our work and we'll brainstorm. This has been invaluable for me. These relationships are incredible. We actually wrote I'll Be Home. We're actually going to do another one this Christmas. Josette Lafleur: What is next for you aside from the Christmas release? Melanie Stevenson: I have two novels that I've written that are waiting in the wings. One is a lovely British romantic comedy that follows a fuddy duddy fellow called Oxford Dunnigan. The other is a real departure. It's telling the story of a girl who is trafficked. I have a marriage book that I'm working on. It's kind of like Soul Focus, daily readings to enrich your marriage. Soul Focus is meant to be a series. The first one was on trials, but I'll also cover forgiveness, humility and releasing control, stuff like that. All to encourage you in the difficulties or things that we struggle with in life.