Family’s Civil War secrets unravelled

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This article was published 17/06/2023 (861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In her latest novel, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer offers up two unusual, suspenseful and compelling stories. One takes place in the present and the other during the American Civil War.

Kuitenbrouwer is the author of All the Broken Things, Perfecting, The Nettle Spinner and the story collection Way Up. Her fiction has won a Danuta Gleed award and has been nominated for various other awards. Based out of Prince Edward County, Ontario, she has a PhD in English and teaches at the University of Toronto.

Both stories in Wait Softly Brother interconnect at different junctures and have elements in common. The protagonist in each story is attempting to escape from family; both stories contain hidden family secrets, mysteries to be solved and a common ancestor. The two stories are told in more or less alternating chapters.

In Wait Softly Brother Kuitenbrouwer is, according to the publisher and her own words, playing with the genre of “autofiction” — autobiographical fiction. So although it is fiction, it is no coincidence the protagonist in the main story is named Kathryn.

In the first story, middle-aged Kathryn escapes to her elderly parents’ home in the country, having left her husband and three sons after years of unhappiness. There she intends to write a story about her stillborn brother, Wulf, whom she has become obsessed with.

With only bits of information, instead Kathryn finds herself embarking on a Civil War story and trying to unravel the mysterious facts surrounding her great-great-great grandfather, Russell Boyt, who is considered to be a strange and disreputable figure to her family.

Boyt was hired as a substitute soldier to fight in the Civil War and as Kathryn’s mother tells her, was said to have had extremely severe mental health issues and should not have even been involved in the war.

Some parts of the Civil War story are gruesome and absolutely heartbreaking; there are many dead bodies and graphic details. On the other hand, the mystery involved with Wulf and Russell Boyt, as well as her parents’ continual avoidance of the truth, will likely keep many readers hooked.

When Kathryn confronts her parents and tries to unravel the many secrets related to her brother’s death, she comes up against endless untruths and stonewalling each time. She is enlisted in going through her parents’ clutter and ancient memorabilia stowed away in gloomy, dark and dank sheds and basements.

Mostly she is told to go home to her own family and forget her writing nonsense. To add to the eeriness and suspense, heavy rains start to pour in a deluge, threatening to flood the house and cut them all off from the rest of the world.

Myth and folklore, which have been skilfully woven in, enhance the mystical and strange nature of the story involving Kathryn. Selkie wives — mythological creatures that shapeshift between human forms and those of seals — and water feature prominently in the novel. The theme of escape is attached to these ancient seal women who long to live in the water.

As the story continues and Kathryn finds herself physically, literally and emotionally digging through years of her family’s past, the rains begin to enter the house, the mother grows ill and finally some truths begin to unravel.

Wait Softly Brother is a suspenseful, complex and unusual work with writing both captivating and intelligent.

Cheryl Girard is a Winnipeg writer.