Callaghan crafts must-read masterpiece

By Barry Callaghan

McArthur & Company, 316 pages, $30

Toronto writer Barry Callaghan's new novel takes us on a tour of the life of a war photographer as he searches for his childhood love through a war-torn African nation.

He has written a must-read book, a book that is simultaneously beautiful, deep, tragic, humorous and exciting. He has created characters who live on the page and in the reader's mind, whose words are both realistic and super-charged with meaning.

Beside Still Waters has all that is great of Hemingway, Conrad and Dostoevsky: from Hemingway, a conciseness of expression where moments of lyricism explode on the page because of the extreme contrast; from Conrad, an exploration of the horror and beauty of the human condition; and from Dostoevsky, characters who talk with insight about the great questions of life.

The story of Adam Waters' quest moves effortlessly, and artfully, around various times and places. Short scenes flow beautifully; each one reveals exactly what it needs -- and no more -- to give meaning to the succeeding one.

One moment we are in Toronto, with Adam as a child talking to his mother who waits for her globetrotting, blues-playing husband; or falling in love with Gabrielle, the daughter of the church choirmaster, whom he reveres; or engaging with the deep and irreverent priest, Father Zale.

A few pages earlier, or later, we are in Puerto Rico, where Adam and Gabrielle are renewing their friendship and love with sensuality and honesty, and where Gabrielle suddenly leaves without warning or apparent reason.

And behind all these flashbacks, we are in Gabon in West Africa, where Adam journeys through a graphically depicted civil war in what he considers a truly romantic quest to find Gabrielle in the leper colony where she has retired.

It is a journey through a heart of darkness, parallel in its strangeness and brutality to Conrad's: Adam may be an innocent and observant Marlow, but Gabrielle's reaction to the horror is not at all Kurtz's. It has a power and beauty all its own.

We are also treated to knowledgeable discourses on music, fishing and photography, and hilarious and sad tombstone epitaphs, song lyrics and fascinating stories.

But they all contribute to Adam's search for the meaning of love and death. This is a very densely written novel which is compellingly readable.

On the way, we meet unforgettable characters.

There is Henri, the hotel proprietor, who says, when soldiers shell the insane asylum, that he thinks "they are probably talking peacefully about their childhood for the first time in years. For the first time the thunder of the world is like the thunder in their heads. They know now they are sane."

And the skeptical Father Zale who, suffering a traumatic experience (wonderfully described in the book), tells the sisters who are caring for him: "Don't worry, I am full of light, it's just that it's a light that demands a faith in darkness."

There is the colonel who arrests Adam in Gabon and interrogates him by saying "I would of course, like to know everything, but we shall be considerate, we shall wait."

The plot has many twists and turns. The mysterious Gabrielle relinquishes her terrible secret, foreshadowed amply throughout the book, early enough that it does not become anti-climactic. That secret not only explains the actions she takes toward the end of the book, but meaningfully changes Adam's memories.

On his side, Adam learns from his father that he has his own mystery, the true meaning of "still waters run deep," that parallels Gabrielle's and allows them to reach a reconciliation of hearts.

Callaghan is the son of the famous novelist Morley Callaghan, who himself once bested Hemingway in a boxing match. Callaghan died in 1990. His son has carved out his own career as one of Canada's most respected men of letters.

Here, in his fifth novel, he displays a great exuberance and assurance to his writing. He controls the reader, and the reader happily goes along for the ride.

Although the narration and plot are superbly done, it is the dialogue that most elevates this book.

On the first page, for example, Adam as a young boy asks his mother whether God loves him. "Of course he does. He died for your sins." "Did I do some sins, Mom?" "No. No, you're much too young." "Then he's not dead for me." "He will be. You'll see, when you get older."

Callaghan's characters speak realistically and in absolute character. You can always tell who's speaking without much narrative assistance. Every line of dialogue is full of meaning, with no wasted words.

Toward the end of the book, Adam tells Gabrielle: "I hardly know you, you've got the face of a saint without God."

This book describes a group of saints without God. It is a privilege to meet them all.

Lawrie Cherniack is a mediator who provides workplace conflict resolution to employers as The Workplace Ombudsman.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 12, 2009 B7