The Cypress Hills: An Island By Itself

The Cypress Hills: An Island By Itself
By Walter Hildebrandt and Brian Hubner
Published by Purich Publishing
Reviewed by Tim Tokaryk
$25.00 ISBN 978-1-895830-30-9

There are still places of reflection and wonderment. Places that existed in their natural form for centuries upon centuries. Capturing these jewels, expressing their significance, is a noble charge commanded by few. “The Cypress Hills, an Island by Itself “ represents one of these jewels. The history of this isolated region is surprisingly long, fraught with characters, misdeeds, government greed, and failed promises. Affected most throughout these trials were the First Nations peoples.

Authors Hildebrandt and Hubner document the sorted history of this iconic piece of land that straddles the southwest corner of Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta. Sitting 600 metres above the grassy plains in all directions, it commands the highest point between the Rockies and central Canada. It contains its own ecosystem of lodgepole pine, elk and moose, remnants of a forest long since gone from western Canada. The ghosts of the now extinct plains grizzlies can still be heard and the forts of the past still striking. This land was a resource for First Nations peoples since at least 10-12,000 years ago, when “this finger of land” exposed during glacial retreats would have been a haven in the demanding times of the frozen past.

The modern history of this piece of land, the last 200 years or so, illustrates the role of the Cypress Hills as an anchor for aboriginal culture and resources and is the focus of this recent volume. It was with the encroachment of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the fur trade that this anchor was severely tested. Never more so than in 1873, when volatile conditions precipitated by the “intensely competitive trade for buffalo robes and furs” led to the ‘Cypress Hills Massacre’ involving American and Canadian traders, Metis, and the Nakoda people. The perpetrators, “sodden with drink” and in the absence of “level heads”, were clearly motivated by the current of racial prejudice that swept along the grassy seas of the Canadian west, including the unprotected and barely-armed camp of the Nakoda that would,in one day of incredulous action, be annihilated.

Since then treaties have come and gone, much like the promises and unilateral decisions of Canada, characterized by an uneven and uncaring hand. Hildebrandt and Hubner, with care and insight, show the history of the First Nations adhesion to this particular region and the resulting disastrous effects. For instance, the authors demonstrate how the forced paternalism of Canadian administrators was “humiliating” for proud First Nations people. What remains now are the names of the administrators and explorers – Farwell, Dewdney, Henday, Walsh – an inter-provincial park, and a national historic site; all little reminders of the past. “The Cypress Hills” is more than a little reminder, but a tempered document that should not be forgotten in this nations history, a record of a prairie island of hope and despair.

Published in:  on 26 February 2009 at 1:13 pm Leave a Comment
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Cheating Fate


“Cheating Fate”
By Audrey Pfitzenmaier
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Judith Silverthorne
Price $12.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-41-6

Gripping from the outset, “Cheating Fate” is a young adult novel that will be remembered long after it’s read. Audrey Pfitzenmaier skilfully weaves together the intertwining stories of the four main characters, who have been best friends since early childhood. Now teenagers, they remain closely bound, but a
serious accident and the resulting shared near death experience shakes their lives. They come to believe that their destinies are tied and that they will die together at some unknown time. Their solution is to separate into pairs in the hopes of cheating fate.

Through an intriguing premise and great character development, we come to know these four teens as if they were people we knew. Each has a distinctive background and each handles their reluctance to tempt fate in a different way and on their own terms, as they struggle with everyday problems of growing up.

Over time, the three boys come to believe they are invincible. The only girl in the group worries about the way their recklessness increases. The flaws of their decision to split become glaringly apparent as all their lives seem to spiral out of control at the same time. Their vulnerability in being apart makes them realize that life without each other not worth living. They must decide whether to expose themselves to the fate they fear will take them if they remain together or accept being forever apart. Or has their reasoning been faulty all along?

“Cheating Fate” is storytelling at its finest, with a conclusion that satisfies, yet leaves one thoughtful about these characters long after the book has ended.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Published in:  on 9 February 2009 at 4:39 pm Leave a Comment
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The Well and Other Stories

The Well and Other Stories
Written by Nick Faragher
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$16.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-48-5

In 2008, Thistledown Press released a first book of stories by BC writer Nick Faragher. I’ve just finished reading the final story in Faragher’s “The Well and Other Stories,” and folks, believe me, this sophisticated collection of often hard-hitting stories reads like the prose of an author who’s been publishing books for decades.

Faragher works those three critical elements of fiction — plot, character (which in this book is often ingeniously developed through spot-on dialogue) and setting – with an incredibly competent hand. He doesn’t rush into his stories: he frequently begins by deftly crafting the locale – whether it be La Piazzo del Cignois, a little square in Milan; the “Palace … a bar in the old style” in Vancouver; or “atop an outcrop of veined, white rock across from the Parthenon,” and thus transports his readers so that they feel they are truly experiencing the story, rather than simply reading it.

Then comes the “then” moment in the stories, the turning point. Like a magician, Faragher takes readers from a young girl’s dreamy Italian afternoon “in the hollow quiet of siesta time” and shatters the reverie by introducing a stroke of malevolence, in this case, the wiles of a silver-tongued local. When reading radiant, dialogue-rich stories like the title story, I felt I was at the table sharing a bottle of wine with the French and English couples in the 400 year old village of Cipieres, France, with its “clean mountain air.” What a gift to be able to travel like this. What I did not expect, and truly admired, was the dramatic plot shifts. I often finished a story – like “The Well,” which begins benignly – and could only marvel at the directions in which the plot turned.

“The Promising Artist” is a lighter story, featuring “Duncan,” a meglomaniac who admires himself (“Not for the first time, when examining himself in a mirror, he was reminded of Greco-Roman frescoes depicting the ideal male figures of antiquity”) and is unimpressed by his full-figured date, met through a “telephone introduction agency”. Faragher writes: “[Duncan'd] always considered thinness in women next to godliness, but he didn’t believe in God, so that left only thinness.” What a jerk.

The collection contains a few stories about young men with troubled pasts and desperate presents. “A Wee Bit of Fun,” concerns homophobia, and a violent attack in Stanley Park, and “A Place to Hang Out” which rightly appears as the last story, has us sympathizing with one of society’s most detested human beings.

Though the author’s name may be unfamiliar to you now, you can be sure that once you’ve read his stories, you won’t soon — or ever — forget it. These eight nervy pieces, like the often scarred lives of the characters they detail, ring true and poignant. They make an indelible mark. Tell your friends. Tell your book club. Tell anyone who appreciates intelligent Canadian literature. Thank you, Thistledown Press, for this introduction to Nick Faragher’s fine fiction. I’m already greedy for more.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

Published in:  on 4 February 2009 at 10:20 am Leave a Comment
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