\s mYevtew ELECTRONIC ADDITION - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWmurders the girls' father. The motherhas already died of the plague. A thirddaughter is gang-raped, becomes pregnant,loses her child and her sanity, andis sent to a convent. Here is how thestory and the book end :This chronicle records facts that mayappear unseemly, but life itself is not alwaysseemly. What counts is that in theend events all fall into place, and aroundthe wild, forsaken bay, little by little, thegentle customs of the old country triumphover pagan fear, softening the cries of thebirds that pass in the gusts of wind thatsweep down off the land.This final statement is true, within theterms of the story. It is also false, becausesimplistic; it belies the chaos set inmotion perpetually by Ferron's people.I read somewhere that certain talesare sublative forms. Myths, for instance,subíate the truth they embody. As Hegeluses the term (from the German verbaufheben), myths subíate by both destroyingand preserving a certain truth.The myth bodies forth the contradictionsin a story without completely negatingor reconciling them. I think that inFerron's work, this sublative elementcomes into play. His many philosophicalassertions crackle with irony, and we mustargue with his assertions while at thesame time accepting them as the onlykind of truth in the pays incertain.DAVID CARPENTERHEMINGWAYESQUEs. L. SPARLING, The Glass Mountain. Doubleday,$17-95-I ENJOYED THIS stylish little romance,despite my misgivings that the charactersare woefully sketchy. In her firstnovel-length book, S. L. Sparling hasidentified a world that I had not beenaware of prior to reading this wellmanneredtale. Chloe Delaney is a concertpianist who aspires to star billing.Her career, however, depends on heravailability as the replacement when thename-act cancels but, under the umbrellaof a manager who is also one ofher lovers, Chloe is making a name forherself.Sparling, it would seem, knows theworld she writes about. She documentsChloe's environment — from the kind ofart adorning her rooms to the fashionsshe wears and the food she wants on hertable. The narrative is economical, yetrich in specified tastes and surroundings.Sparling tells Chloe's story in a discontinuousnarrative which presents pictures— stills — of her characters at selectedmoments. Chloe's family is at the centreof the narrative. The cast includes aHemingwayesque grandmother with herpast of loves betrayed and chased, ahomosexual cousin who turns out to beChloe's brother, a 1960's piano teacherwith his hair down, and solidly placed,monied parents who adopted Chloe andare out of synch with her artistic predilections.Of the bunch, only Chloe isan original. Sparling follows her throughmusic summer camps and subsequentlove relationships, but her narrative stylenever compensates for gaps in the chronologicalgrowth of the character. Thesegaps are a major failing in the booksince, while we can see Chloe in herworld, we never really get to know her.The narrative frames the story insidea psychiatric clinic. Chloe has admittedherself for treatment after Cosimo, themost important male figure in her life,dies. She only learned that Cosimo was,in fact, her brother while he was on hisdeath bed. She has grown up admiringhim and believing herself adopted intothe Delaney family, with Cosimo nothingmore than a cousin. Sparling holds backthe precise relationships between thecharacters — although hints abound —until late in the book juggling the time169