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L-G-0012832284-0046432546.Pdf FROM THE HEART ON THE HEARTLAND THE FICTION OF SINCLAIR ROSS This page intentionally left blank REAPPRAISALS: CANADIAN WRITERS FROM THE HEART OF THE HEARTLAND THE FICTION OF SINCLAIR ROSS Edited by John Moss University of Ottawa Press REAPPRAISALS Canadian Writers LORRAINE McMULLEN General Editor Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Main entry under title: From the Heart of the Heartland The Fiction of Sinclair Ross (Reappraisals, Canadian writers; 17) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7766-0329-9 1. Ross, Sinclair, 1908— — Criticism and interpretation. I. Moss, John, 1940- II. Series. PS8535.079Z88 1991 C813'.54 C9I-090460-X PR9199.3.R68Z84 1991 NIVERSITE D'OTTAWA UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA © University of Ottawa Press, 1992 Printed and bound in Canada ISBN 0-7766-0329-9 "All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher." Contents Introduction JOHN Moss 1 Sinclair Ross in Letters and Conversation DAVID STOUCK 5 "Can't See Life for Illusions": The Problematic Realism of Sinclair Ross ANGELA ESTERHAMMER 15 The Conflicting Signs of Ax fur Me and My House FRANKFRANK DAVEYDAVEY 25 Who Are You, Mrs. Bentley?: Feminist Re-vision and Sinclair Ross's Ax for Me and My House HELEN M. Buss 39 The Dark Laughter of As for Me and My House WILFRED CUDE 59 Horsey Comedy in the Short Fiction of Sinclair Ross DAVID CARPENTER 67 Telling Secrets: Sinclair Ross's Sawbones Memorial CHARLENE DIEHL-JONES 81 Sinclair Ross's "Foreigners" MARILYN ROSE 91 An Awful Stumbling Towards Names: Ross and the (Un)Common Noun DENNIS COOLEY 103 A Reference Guide to Sinclair Ross DAVID LATHAM 125 This page intentionally left blank Introduction JOHN MOSS Asfor Me and My House is the quintessential Canadian novel, much the way The Adventures of Hucklebeny Finn is quintessentially' American. Sinclair Ross and Mark Twain have little enough in common, but both of them manage to capture in fictions that could not be taken in any way as mainstream the hearts and perhaps the souls of their respective nations. Twain's novel is the literary equivalent of" democratic populism; Ross's achievement is far more enigmatic. As for Me and My House seems calm on the surface, almost genteel. The narrative voice suggests self- assurance bordering on the smug. Yet there are, beneath that surface, within that voice, passion and uncertainty, conflict and pain. There are also wit, arrogance, vulnerability, and warmth. Identity is askew; while there is a powerful sense of place, almost overwhelming, there is a disjointed sense of time—of historical time, of duration, of continuity. All this makes it seem very, very Canadian. The fact that it is a fine novel and that it is perhaps somehow more accessible to Canadians than to other readers assures it an important position in the Canadian tradition. Does this mean that Sinclair Ross is the quintessential Canadian nov- elist? Probably not. A sensibility so thoroughly rooted in the heartland of the country is not likely to speak for the urban majority, not with the same authority as Mordecai Richler and Margaret Atwood, whose caustic voices are continual reminders that we are merely Canadian, nor with the assurance of Margaret Laurence, who turned Manawaka into Main Street, nor with the urgency of Ernest Buckler, who spoke from a self-defined periphery, nor with the unsettling clarity of Alice Munro, who speaks from memories we share. Sinclair Ross writes from the heart of the Canadian heartland. Even 2 when his fiction strays to Montreal or elsewhere, it offers a vision of life, a view of the world, from the prairie thirties. His voice is a finely articulated reminder of who we have been as a community, morally and psychologically, a reminder of where we come from. Not only in As for Me and My House, and the stories in The Lamp At Noon, but in The Well and Whir of Gold and Sawbones Memorial, and in his other stories, he writes with what seems an uncanny authenticity. As with all great artists, his experience of the world becomes our own. He does not circumscribe us, the way Richler does, or even Alice Munro. He expands our limits, our experience of ourselves. Sinclair Ross is central to Canadian literature. This does not mean his work has been a major influence. Few, if any, Canadian novels have been influential, in terms of shaping our tradition. His work is nevertheless among its major achievements. Tradition is the net we cast upon the past to make our presence in the world seem inevitable, as of course it is, and compre- hensible, which it sometimes isn't. Tradition is retrospective: it is the acknowl- edgement and appreciation of cultural heritage. In this respect, Sinclair Ross is very important to us. We are as fortunate to have both Ross and, say, Charles Dickens in our past as we are to have grandparents and great statesmen. Without Sir John and Sir Wilfrid, our lives might not have been the same. Without grandparents, we would not have been. Ross is that necessary to our being and well-being as Canadians. He is the literary forebear of Margaret Laurence, Robert Kroetsch, Aritha van Herk. Yet it would be foolish to expect that Kroetsch was influenced exclusively by Sinclair Ross who was influenced by, say, Frederick Philip Grove who was influenced by Susanna Moodie, whose principal influence was Wacousla. Lines of influence and of descent, in literature as in life, are not equivalent. The literary achievement of Sinclair Ross might not be fully apparent to those unfamiliar with the Canadian tradition. To someone ignorant of cultural heritage in a Canadian context, the familiar voice and vision in Ross's fiction might seem colonial rather than authentic; his regional author- ity might seem provincial, his subtlety an evasion, his brilliant fusion of abstract and concrete an affectation. Yet it is the familiar, it is regionalism, ambivalent subtleties, practical metaphysics, that elevate Ross and his fiction to such prominence in our tradition. Recognition does not make him less, on the world's stage; nor does it make him more. But within his own tra- dition, it places his work among the very best. Inevitably, in a gathering of Ross specialists, discussion of As for Me and My House will dominate. There is nothing demeaning about the selection by critical consensus of one work over the others in a writer's canon. Ross is a great writer not in spite of writing only one great novel, but because he wrote at least one, and in the context of excellence that his other work provides. Half a century after the publication of his most celebrated achieve- 3 merit, it is interesting to see that critical commentary is still generated by his other writing. The short stories especially command attention. This may be in part because several of them are widely anthologized—but that too is a measure of their literary worth. His other novels are less well known, except by specialists. That, however, is not a measure of their worth—but rather, of the idiosyncracies of accessibility in the Canadian market. What must be most satisfying to Sinclair Ross—Jim, as he is known to his friends—is the fact that a symposium such as the one represented by this book can bring established scholars and critics together with some of the newest and brightest, that it can bring together thematic critics and critical theorists, earnest scholars, intellectual entrepreneurs, a radical popu- list or two, and even a critical anarchist, if there is such a thing. The interest in Jim Ross and his writings is not limited to a particular academic coterie. It is not a matter of cultural history, but of art; not a matter of duty, but of conviction, enthusiasm, and pleasure. At precisely the same time as the University of Ottawa symposium on Sinclair Ross began in Ottawa, in April 1990, Canadian literary critic Robert Lecker delivered an address to an international congress on Canadian Studies in southern Italy on the virtual canonization of As fur Me and My House. Lecker's point—that Ross's best and best-known novel is more read about than read—is a provocative reminder that sometimes, in our rush to celebrate what is truly excellent, we obscure the thing itself behind a wall of praise or, worse, of analytic obfuscation. Of even more significance, though, is the ironic fact that—call it synchronicity or critical coincidence—Lecker's presentation on Ross at the exact time of the conference in Ottawa confirmed the classic status of As for Me and My House. The essays in this volume were originally delivered as papers at the 1990 Ross symposium, with the exception of David Latham's bibliographic contribution. Each contributor has used the texts of his or her choice, as indicated in the lists of works cited. I would like to express my appreciation to my colleagues in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa for their help in pre- paring the program and, especially, in seeing that the weekend ran smoothly. I would particularly like to thank the indefatigable Frank Tierney for all his efforts in this, as in every other Ottawa symposium. I would also like to thank the participants for attending this edition of what is generally regarded as one of the more pleasant and rewarding functions in the academic year. I would like to thank Julia Moss for her astute editorial assistance and Julie Sevigny-Roy in the Department of English office for her help throughout the project.
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