Review of THE FIDDLER IS A GOOD WOMAN by Geoff Berner (New Release)

3 Stars

DD is an elusive Canadian folk musician who has disappeared.  The author, in an attempt to find her, interviews people who knew her, mostly fellow musicians, and asks them to divulge their most important memories of DD.  What emerges is a character portrait.

Every one of the narrators seems to have been mesmerized by DD.  There are some conflicting accounts but it seems clear that DD is a troubled woman who has been wounded by life.  Though she is predictable and unreliable, these flaws seem not to matter.  Everyone seems mesmerized by her prodigious talent and her charisma; both men and women find her sexually irresistible even though she is serially unfaithful. 

Of course, the narrators also reveal themselves as they present their versions of DD.  Some of her bandmates are jealous of her musical gift and resent how she attracts others to her.  Everyone seems to want something from her, use of her body or talent being foremost.  Several people have a love/hate relationship with the quirky fiddler.  One lover admits, “There was something about her that . . . I couldn’t figure out . . . I was trying to get DD somehow,” but really no one person has a complete understanding of her. 

There is nothing like a traditional plot structure.  The narrative shifts among narrators and moves back and forth in time.  There are many narrators so it is sometimes difficult to keep track of who is who.  I kept wishing there were a list of all the speakers and their relationship to DD; I almost resorted to making notes to help me remember the salient points about each narrator.

What is missing is tension.  At the beginning, confusion is dominant; later, interest grows but there is no great suspense.  The reader knows from the beginning that DD will not be found; in the introductory note, Berner admits, “I failed to find DD.”  Anyone who needs suspense to motivate his/her reading will not enjoy this book.

Even though the book is a novel, a work of fiction, the author does succeed at making the reader think of DD as a real person.  That is a commendable literary accomplishment.  The insights into the Canadian music scene are intriguing; it is obvious that Berner writes from first-hand experience.  DD is an Indigenous woman so I found the references to missing Indigenous women appropriate:  DD’s disappearance is dismissed because she is “a woman, a musician, and of Indigenous heritage.  Those kinds of people disappear all the time, after all.” DD’s admonition to a friend, “’Just promise me you won’t hitchhike around here,’” refers, I think, to the Highway of Tears.

This is not a book I would recommend to everyone.  The subject matter with its proliferation of drugs, sex and profane language will repel some readers; the non-traditional structure along with shifting time periods and multiple narrators will not appeal to others.  Anyone wanting a quirky read focusing on quirky characters will enjoy this novel.

Note:  I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.