Blind Night

by Cordelia Strube

When a truck slams into her house, causing it to burst into flame, McKenna and her eight-year-old daughter Logan narrowly escape, watching horrified as it burns to the ground. As a result, McKenna suffers a concussion which diminishes her vision. Having lost all possessions, they are forced to camp out in a seedy motel with their narcoleptic dog, Stanley. Payne, McKenna's sex-addicted ex-lover, on the run from loan sharks, abruptly joins them, igniting hope in Logan who yearns for her parents' reconciliation and a "normal" life. For McKenna, Payne's reappearance, while reawakening desire, only adds to her anxieties, mainly the worsening of her eye condition that threatens her livelihood as a hair stylist. Increasingly haunted by memories of abuse suffered at the hand of her father, she is suddenly forced to care for him when he is felled by a stroke. Logan can barely sleep because the rainforests are being bulldozed and the world's whale population is rapidly declining. Their residence in the drug-infested motel with "no-lifers", including a supermarket clown with a pet pig, is just an extension of a problematic world, as she sees it. When the last blow falls, and Logan is finally forced by McKenna to reveal her shameful secret, hope appears lost. "Blind Night" is classic Strube. With keen observation, pitch-perfect dialogue, and ferocious humour, she folds the reader seamlessly into the heads of her characters. This mordantly funny and haunting novel could have come only from Canada's pre-eminent writer of contemporary urban fiction.

Genres: Contemporary, Canada

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2004

About the author

Read an interview and an excerpt of Cordelia's new novel, On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light, in Numéro Cinq Magazine: http://goo.gl/9KOheD

Watch a video of Cordelia interacting with students at York University's Canadian Writers in Person here: https://youtu.be/7548Yv5E5qI

Cordelia Strube is an accomplished playwright and the author of nine critically acclaimed novels, including Alex & Zee, Teaching Pigs to Sing, and Lemon. Winner of the CBC literary competition and a Toronto Arts Foundation Award, she has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Book Award, the WH Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Prix Italia, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Strube is a two-time finalist for ACTRA’s Nellie Award celebrating excellence in Canadian broadcasting and a three-time nominee for the ReLit Award. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Jennifer Mannering · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book! It was slow, there's no arguing that, but I just loved how TRUE everything was. It was such a great reflection on the darker side of humanity, and I just loved all of the characters. The dynamics of Logan and McKenna were so realistic and reminded me a lot of myself and my own mother. McKenna's colour-blind condition was also a great commentary on living with a disease that is not quite debilitating, but still majorly impacts your life. I also loved all the little stories of her hair clients and the other people living in the motel.

Overall, it was just such a great story about LIFE.

Really looking forward to reading more of her books!