Selected this book because I saw it when I was Emma's house and she lent it to me. Was hoping it would be about Canadian identity or something like this (see: Barney's Version). Book turned out to be about identity, but not about Canada. In the story Canada stands as a metaphore both for otherness as well as for arbitrariness.
The has 3 parts
Part 1) The events lead up to the robbery
Part one asks the question about identity. Is our identity something innate in us, that we always are, or do we become our identity through physical actions.
Part 2) Life in Saskatchewan
Basically the counterpoint to part one of the book. Part two of the book takes place on the other side of the border, and it posits how things can be different, but still almost the same. If the parents were never truely bank robbers, or at least took a fair bit of nudging to get there, they somehow never had negative intent, Remlinger on the other hand is the murderer who has always been, but has been constrained by society.
Another reference to the subtle difference was that Dell's father, who was born in Alabama used to "speak Dixie" which would sound different than what Dell was used to hearing or how Dell could speak. But when Dell goes to Canada he is told that people speak differently there, but cannot identify the difference himself. Offhandedly, this made me think of the "Jesusland" map where Canada and the Northern USA is drawn as having more in common than the Southern US.
There is also an important moment where Charley sends Dell into his trailer so that Dell can see how he lives. Chaley explains that his life is a mess because he never managed to set any boundaries.
Part 3) The Epilogue
Dell has managed to make a life and has "salvaged" the situation as much as possible but Berner has been unable to do so, she has been swept up by the tide of the time... Having Berner go to San Fran in the 60's and have an opiod addiction in the 00's.
Berner never gets the chance to become what she was going to become. Her identity is unclear, though it seemed that she had more potential than Dell, she never found a way to use it (not unlike her mother). Because she was unable to set the appropriate boundaries (the boundary that Dell's mother need to set was not marrying the father, in this part of the metaphore the father always more closely resembled Arthur).
And so, the conclusion is that Dell by virtue of his crossing the physical border to Canada has managed to put the appropriate literal and metaphorical boundary in place to live a decent life.
The has 3 parts
Part 1) The events lead up to the robbery
Part one asks the question about identity. Is our identity something innate in us, that we always are, or do we become our identity through physical actions.
Part 2) Life in Saskatchewan
Basically the counterpoint to part one of the book. Part two of the book takes place on the other side of the border, and it posits how things can be different, but still almost the same. If the parents were never truely bank robbers, or at least took a fair bit of nudging to get there, they somehow never had negative intent, Remlinger on the other hand is the murderer who has always been, but has been constrained by society.
Another reference to the subtle difference was that Dell's father, who was born in Alabama used to "speak Dixie" which would sound different than what Dell was used to hearing or how Dell could speak. But when Dell goes to Canada he is told that people speak differently there, but cannot identify the difference himself. Offhandedly, this made me think of the "Jesusland" map where Canada and the Northern USA is drawn as having more in common than the Southern US.
There is also an important moment where Charley sends Dell into his trailer so that Dell can see how he lives. Chaley explains that his life is a mess because he never managed to set any boundaries.
Part 3) The Epilogue
Dell has managed to make a life and has "salvaged" the situation as much as possible but Berner has been unable to do so, she has been swept up by the tide of the time... Having Berner go to San Fran in the 60's and have an opiod addiction in the 00's.
Berner never gets the chance to become what she was going to become. Her identity is unclear, though it seemed that she had more potential than Dell, she never found a way to use it (not unlike her mother). Because she was unable to set the appropriate boundaries (the boundary that Dell's mother need to set was not marrying the father, in this part of the metaphore the father always more closely resembled Arthur).
And so, the conclusion is that Dell by virtue of his crossing the physical border to Canada has managed to put the appropriate literal and metaphorical boundary in place to live a decent life.