Progress

by Michael V. Smith

In a small working-class town, the building of a dam uproots everyone and everything - including the graveyard and those who rest beneath it. As the behemoth rises, a worker falls to his death, earning only a moment's pause from his crew before they entomb him in freshly poured concrete. The workman's fall is witnessed by Helen Massey, a woman who is no stranger to tragedy ever since her fiance was killed by a roadside bomb in a war-torn country overseas. But neither the construction nor the imminent death of her town cause as much turmoil as the return of her long-lost brother, Robbie, who carries with him the secret that tore their family apart and which - unbeknownst to Helen - binds their lives together in a profound and unexpected way. 'Progress', the highly anticipated follow-up to Michael V. Smith's acclaimed debut novel 'Cumberland', is a stirring story of lives lost and found.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Michael V. Smith is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, performance artist and occasional clown.
He also is professor creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

Reviews

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning: This Reveiw Contains Spoilers+

-A woman makes her annual picnic/visit to her long lost sweethearts grave, but does not even get to eat lunch

-on a remote worksite of an enormous development project, a man falls from a rigging, past the astonished eyes of his co-worker below.After a frenzied interval, the work of pouring concrete continues, covering the mans body. He WAS dead,wasn't he? This is not reported but witnessed by a woman idly watching through binoculars.

- a man returns to the family home he fled as a teen, to find the father he despised and the mother he adored, had both recently deceased, leaving the impression that he himself had predeceased them.

-A woman discovers that her lover was cheating on her with her brother.

- a town is being dismantled with divisive results. Not everyone is prepared to go. Who profits?

-a joyful family reunion is spoiled by devestating news.

Connect the dots and we have, not a book of short if related stories, but a kind of tragi-comedy of errors and omissions. MS certainly has a queer notion of progress which he deftly explores in this splendid novel of the various routes of intimacy, love and loss.

No wonder Helen feels like she is having a rough week!
As for Robbie, his meltdown,while anticipated,goes far beyond a bit of a slip. MS handles this all with a cool empathy and gives us just the right surprise ending to leave us with a little glimmer of hope for the human situation,progress or no.

[Ruth Seeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this well enough to go back and read Michael V. Smith's first novel, Cumberland. Interesting plot and well-developed characters with a very subtle handling of the intricacies of family and relationship loyalties and conflicts, including a stab at an attempt to answer that age-old question, when is honesty the right thing and when are you right to withhold information you know will hurt someone you love? More important, how do you decide whether disclosure or withholding is the right thing? And what are the chances the choice you've made is actually the right one for the people you love rather than just the right choice for you?