The Western Alienation Merit Badge

by Nancy Jo Cullen

Set in Calgary in 1982, in the wake of the recession that arrived on the heels of Canada’s 1980 National Energy Program, The Western Alienation Merit Badge tells the story of the Murray family who are struggling with grief and the very real possibility of financial ruin. After the death of her stepmother Frances Murray is called back to Calgary to help her father, Jimmy, and sister, Bernadette, make the mortgage on the family home. When Robyn, a long lost friend, becomes their house guest tensions are ignited and Jimmy, Bernadette and Frances find themselves increasingly estranged from one another.

For the Murrays, history has a way of repeating itself and as each of them wrestles with their own secrets they find themselves unable to forget and unwilling to forgive one another. Part family drama, part queer coming-of-age story, The Western Alienation Merit Badge explores the dynamics of a small family falling apart.

Genres: Queer, Canada, Fiction, LGBT, Historical Fiction, Coming Of Age, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2019

About the author

Nancy Jo Cullen’s fiction and poems have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2018, The Journey Prize, The Puritan, Grain, filling Station, Plenitude, Prairie Fire, This Magazine, Room and Arc Poetry Magazine. Her first novel, The Western Alienation Merit Badge is published by Wolsak and Wynn. Her short story collection, Canary, (Biblioasis) was the winner of the 2012 Metcalfe Rooke prize.

She has published 3 collections of poetry with Calgary’s Frontenac House Press and is mid-way through her fourth collection of poetry.

Nancy is the 2010 winner of the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging Gay Writer. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph.

A transplanted westerner, she now lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an incredible book! A family saga, snapshot of growing up in Calgary in the 70s, coming back home in the 80s & then in the 2010s, and a queer coming of age story. The characters--two sisters Bernadette and Frances, their dad (who lost two wives 😥), and Frankie's childhood friend--are achingly real, flawed, and sympathetic even when you'd least expect. At once so specific to time and place, yet with such broadly recognizable complicated emotions and family dynamics. So Canadiana, so working class, so prairies. And the novel's chapters are loosely structured around Girl Guide badges, so clever with with cute illustrations like on the pitch perfect cover.

I loved Cullen's short story collection, Canary, a few years ago and this novel is just as great. I love her writing. Her characters feel so uncanny to me, so very familiar, but those familiar folks seen with such a sharp, empathetic eye.

Full review on my blog to come!

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rep: lesbian mc, bi mc, gay mc

[Oriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet, often sorrowful, short family drama, a queer coming-of-age story, and an often rough look at an untethered family helping and (more often) hurting each other in their grief. It takes place in Calgary in the '70s and follows a dad who has just buried his second wife and is attempting to learn to knit as a way to contend with his loss, and his two daughters, one a lesbian just yanked home from a sojourn abroad where she's just starting to come into her own, and the other a stern, somewhat devout real estate agent who finds herself knocked up by a one-night stand so unsavory that she tells everyone that the soon-to-be baby's father is dead.

It's a short, fairly light book, but it feels heavy because the circumstances are so suffused with grief and confusion. It also jumps around in time in odd ways, giving what I felt was too much space to certain periods while really short-changing others. It's also tough because the characters are often so cruel to each other, which it's clear is an extension of their own pain, but I often found it hard to empathize.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final chapters are (in my opinion) in the wrong place. I understand what they're trying to illustrate, but it gives the ending of the book less of a definitive conclusion and more of a disjointed throwback. But it's about the only thing in the book that bothers me...otherwise, this is a dark, tragic, funny, poignant, in-your-face look at a unique time and place, with a set of fantastic characters. It's actually one of the most bleakly funny books I've ever read...and I really like that combination.

[Dessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was super into this book for the first half, but slowly some of the characters began to grate on me. Add some wild time-hopping to chapters that are already mega brief, and things began to feel a little too choppy for me. Given, I’m suspicious of any book that gives me multiple viewpoints, especially so quickly back to back, so that bias is my own. Anyway, lovely reading for an afternoon.

[Jocelyn H · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about family, conflict, class, and queerness in 1970s and 1980s Calgary. It is sad and moving and complex. I loved it.

[RatGrrrl · Rating 4 out of 5]

CN. Homophobia, Parental Death/ Grief, Self Harm

A great bit of mumblecore slice of Queer life that I wanted to rip my guts out, but it was all a bit too all over the place for neurodivergent brain to really emotionally lock in. That's absolutely a me problem though.

I definitely enjoyed this and the ending was really, really good, but I wish it had some of the early years stuff at the beginning, rather than just at the end because it was so good.

Honestly, my AuDHD and unfamiliarity with the region/ contract were definitely factors. I could definitely see it being a lot more to someone else.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had the potential to be incredible. A great cast of characters each with compelling storylines, a unique setting, tackling some big issues. There are moments of brilliance, like in the vivid descriptions of 1980s Calgary and the imagery of quilting and crochet as a character processes emotions. But the story jumps around in time too much and leaves too many untied threads, so none of the characters feel fully realized and ultimately I was left wanting more (and not in a good way)

[Laurie Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of a queer coming of age story, sort of a sad family drama, either way I enjoyed it.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grim. Good gimmick, though.

[Annie MacKillican · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going to give this a 3 stars but the final third of the book really turned things around for me. It's touching and a little bit heartbreaking.

"I wish I was a gopher."
Robyn laughed. "You don't like being a girl?"

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pauses I took in reading this probably affected my rating of this book. It's a 2.5 for me.

I was really excited to read a story set in NEP era Calgary. The book design itself is really beautiful. But the choice to order the book the way it is, jumping around temporally seems odd and the ending was unsatisfying.

[capricornreader · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW: homophobia, smoking, drugs, alcohol, death of a parent, violence, fire

for such a short book this sure did a good job of feeling super disjointed and messy! the narration bounces between almost every character we meet, most of them being uptight homophobes, and not only that but it also bounced between different years as well. and like most books told in this kind of non-linear way I couldn't think of any reason why it couldn't have just been told in a more linear timeline 🤷

[Peggy Frith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. Tedious. Somehow every single character was annoying. One of those books that is like a boring soap opera that is analyzing everyone's feelings. The cover art is amazing though. I read the whole thing hoping it was going to get better and it never improved.

[Deelee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Western Alienation Merit Badge is the chronology-hopping story of young adult sisters, Frankie and Bernadette, who must move home to help their laid-off father, Jimmy, pay the bills. The main portion of the novel takes place in 1982 Calgary, during a major, Canadian recession, when Frankie is 20 and Bernadette is 25 or 26.

The two sisters have fought bitterly and constantly since years earlier when their mother died. In adulthood, their battles take on a new, harsh tenor, thanks to Bernadette's rigid worldview (a conservatism couched in Catholicism, but owing more to Bernadette's own difficulty with anything that is unfamiliar or deviates from her personal norms) and Frankie's half-hearted efforts to conceal her queerness. When Frankie gets romantically involved with a straight-identified childhood friend and Bernadette gets accidentally pregnant for the second time, the match is lit on the explosion of their relationship.

If this sounds unsurprising, it is. From the start of the book, the dynamic between the sisters is hard-baked, with little promise or likelihood of change. While both characters are well-developed, the narrative meanders, covering familiar territory again and again, even as it moves forward and backward in time.

The novel's other major characters, Jimmy, Robyn, and Brandon/Phoenix, are as predictable as the sisters' propensity to bicker to the point of drawing blood. Robyn, a damaged, self-centered partier and poor-little-rich-girl, breaks hearts, drinks every drop, starts fires, and succeeds by never looking back. Brandon/Phoenix, Bernadette's eventual gay son, frets about not wanting to play hockey, skips, and rages shrilly at his mother about her homophobia. Jimmy, while not exactly a cliche (he's a working man who discovers a love of quilting, parents his grandson, and cries easily in old age), does little to move the plot, preferring to stand to the side of events, brooding and regretting, but never making a choice of apparent consequence (except insofar as inaction is a choice).

The 1982/present-day narratives end halfway through the book. Act II picks up decades earlier, during the summer of Robyn and Frankie's brief, childhood friendship. No surprises there either. Bernadette and Frankie are still fighting. Robyn is still flighty and self-centered. Jimmy is checked out and brooding. Although this lengthy section provides some justification for Bernadette's rage (she misses her mom) and Robyn's selfishness (her parents are cold and snobby), the author has overestimated the complexity of her characters, if she thinks we could not have inferred these reasons on our own.

Other than that, there is no clear reason why the novel needed this chunk of backstory, which drifts aimlessly, offering no revelations or deepening of what came before. It feels like leftover junk from an earlier draft, rather than a thought-through narrative decision.

Western Alienation Merit Badge has some nice moments. I enjoyed Frankie and Bernadette, and wish the second half of the novel had covered the mystery of their reunion in middle age, rather than well-trod territory of their pasts. I feel sympathy for the author as another revision or two could have made for a very good novel. I cannot, however, forgive the editor who thought this book was ready to go to press; I wish for Cullen a future of better literary midwives.

[b · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 3.75 out of 5.

Cullen deftly handles the tricky problem posed by a story whose primary protagonist who has the smallest necessary emotional arc or growth or whatever you want to call it of the entire cast of characters, and how she manages to do that with Frances (Franky, colloquially) is a bit of a mystery to me. Partly it works because you get this clear signal in the leaps forward in time that Francis has cut ties with the family over some ominous falling out on the horizon, and you only get that by omission really, because it’s everyone but Francis in those leaps until near the close of the book. The only real hiccup in plotting is the final stretch of the book goes into a deep flashback space that feels not just out of order but ultimately like character work scaffolding that doesn’t enrich the story—that it’s meant to allot a little bit of grace to tricky religious guilt-hounded oldest sister Bernie, well I get it, but it felt like something someone would unhelpfully suggest in a writer’s workshop, “can you put in a flashback that explains why the people are who they are and also details exposition you’ve otherwise handled already and with great economy?” It’s frustrating to watch this book fall apart at the end like that, though I do appreciate Cullen’s leaping to a more lyrical timber for the final image of the tale, particularly as the prose is competent but a bit reserved throughout the rest of the book. I think this is the first time I’ve “seen” Calgary in this era in literature, though I’m woefully bad at reading anyhow, so that’s a spurious remark, but I just want to note that I am glad to have “seen” thar bit of Calgary in that bit of time.

Pretty good book overall, and brisk for a novel.

[Cheryle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this selection for the High Plains Book Awards. The author is from Calgary Canada.
Set in Calgary in 1982, in the wake of the recession that arrived on the heels of Canada’s 1980 National Energy Program, The Western Alienation Merit Badge tells the story of the Murray family who are struggling with grief and the very real possibility of financial ruin. After the death of her stepmother Frances Murray is called back to Calgary to help her father, Jimmy, and sister, Bernadette, make the mortgage on the family home. When Robyn, a long lost friend, becomes their house guest tensions are ignited and Jimmy, Bernadette and Frances find themselves increasingly estranged from one another.

For the Murrays, history has a way of repeating itself and as each of them wrestles with their own secrets they find themselves unable to forget and unwilling to forgive one another. Part family drama, part queer coming-of-age story, The Western Alienation Merit Badge explores the dynamics of a small family falling apart.

[Enid Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely little tragi-comic period piece about love, loss, life, regret, religion and family (love ‘em or hate ‘em). Such an authentic portrayal of the time and the place - and the politics… from the big P national political scene right down to the small p personal is political scene. I enjoyed the light hearted approach to the writing as well as the multiple perspectives.

I do think though that the last section (July 1974) was mis-placed… and should have come earlier in the book. Ending where it did, and from Bernadette’s perspective, felt wrong. The prior section (July 2016) was where the book should have ended. As for other minor complaints...I wish I’d had a chance to get to know Brandon/Phoenix a little better - although the point of writing in that character was accomplished - just as I wish to have better understood Bern/adette better (especially her rigid adherence to Catholic dogma).

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this is a good book. I rarely have the opportunity to read books set in my home province, so I appreciated this novel for that fact alone. I also loved the way that the author explores the relationships between each of the characters, and the attention paid to each character's identity as the events unfold. The cast of characters includes individuals struggling with sexual and gender identities, as well as religious expectations and grief.

I was really hoping that this novel would explore more of the political climate of Alberta in the 1970s and 1980s. While certain chapters discuss the setting, I felt that this area was lacking and could have added more depth to the plot and characters. I also felt that some of the chapters were hard to follow or could have been left out entirely.

I still think that this book is worth reading, as it discusses important characters and themes in a Canadian context. It just felt a little underdeveloped and awkward at times.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book for sum of its parts, but I think that it would have been more effective with a format change. If the flashbacks and the "present day" were woven together instead of in two big chunks we weould have cared about Robin and the Robin/Frankie couple more, but I loved the content of both parts.

I'm a lesbian and a Canadian poli sci student so a lot about this book was appealing me. I loved the setting, I loved the background energy crisis. I loved Frankie, and I really grew to love Jimmy as well. More importantly I understood Bernadette even when I kind of hated her. Fun, quick read.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting fever dream of Alberta's boom and bust economy over the last 40 years, as well as a commentary on the lower middle class struggle with the fluctuating economy in an attempt to survive long enough to make it to the next boom. This story encapsulates many Alberta stereotypes, albeit not in the most subtle way. The commentary being made is a little obvious but interspersed throughout I found Cullen making profound observations that ring true in 1984 Alberta as well as 2022 Alberta.

[Heather Judson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I felt that it did evoke the sensibilities of the early 80's in Canada. People in Alberta really hated Trudeau, and they still don't like Ontario and Quebec's effects on every federal election. I found Frankie, Bernie, and even Robyn to be sympathetic characters. This is a story about the trajectory of women's lives, and how early experiences sometimes influence them. I'd read more about these three.

[Rhonda Hartling · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Really interesting format and good story.
I feel like the timelines were a bit confusing and the ending (which was the beginning) seemed abrupt. There are a few gaps in the story and in the characters’ journey - especially Jimmy - but overall... enjoyable.

[Dev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t fond of this book. The dysfunctional family and fire elements reminded me of Mostly Dead Things, which felt much more well done to me. I also would have preferred more about Phoenix’s life if we were going to jump around in timelines rather than going back to 1974 for the end.

[Arin Goswami · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reviews for this book were mixed so I didn't know what to expect, it was surprisingly fun to read if you're cool with reading a timeline that isn't chronological. The characters were quite well hashed out and had complexities that were layered.

Honestly, a fun read.

[D'Arcy White · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the jumps in the timeline too disjointed for me. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if the narrator had just drifted off into a daydream or we’d actually seen a bit of their lived future. And personally, I would rather have read the fall back in time at the end earlier in the book.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to this on audio which I think impacted my experience. I’m okay with unusual structures but the various threads didn’t end up conjuring up enough feeling for me. The depiction of Calgary, queerness, and culture in the 80s was the most interesting part.

[Charlie David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful little novel that feels incredibly relevant today though set in 1982. The repercussions of loss of jobs in the Oil & Gas sector and the lingering effects on a community ring true for many in the 80s as well as today. Lots of beautiful moments of finding one's way in the storm of life.

[Jules Vices · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct well written chapters. I flew through the book especially once I was 25% in it. Talented author. Writing is efficient but also prose-like. Great material. Very western Canadiana. Really enjoyed this.

[molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but it felt too brief. I think the multiple perspectives and time jumps would have worked much better if everything was more detailed. As is, it felt like the author was trying to do too much at once.