Review of FAR CRY by Alissa York (New Release)

4 Stars

It’s been a while since I’ve read Alissa York; I really enjoyed Effigy from 2007, but my last encounter with this author was her Fauna which I read over a decade ago.  (Somehow I missed her 2016 The Naturalist.) Far Cry, her latest book, reminded me of what a great storyteller she is.

Most of the novel is set in Far Cry, the location of a fish cannery on the northwest coast of British Columbia.  It is 1922.  Anders Viken, the camp’s storekeeper during salmon fishing season and its watchman during the winter, is writing an account of his life beginning with his departure from his home in Norway when he was a young man.  His story is intended for 18-year-old Kit Starratt for whom he is an honorary uncle.  Kit’s mother Bobbie recently disappeared and her father Frank was found drowned near his boat.  Having known Kit’s parents for years, Anders also tells of how Bobbie and Frank met and details important events in their lives together. 

Besides Anders’ first-person narration, we are also given Kit’s third-person perspective.  She becomes a fisher for the company that owns the cannery.  The job entails her being in a boat for five days at a time so she has lots of time to reflect on her life and recent events.  What is interesting with this dual narrative structure is that the reader gets her version of events, often incomplete or not totally understood because she was a child, and then Anders’ recounting which fills in gaps.  Anders knows much more than Kit does about the Starratts. 

In one respect, this novel could be considered a love story.  There’s Bobbie and Frank’s story, of course, but Anders also reveals the loves in his life.  His loves are secret and impossible because they’re forbidden, but his actions show that love is his motivation.  Of course, love does not guarantee happiness:  there’s a revealing conversation between Kit and a friend about Kit’s parents.  Kit admits that she doesn’t think they were always happy, but she knows they loved each other. 

However, the book also details life in a fishing camp/cannery at the beginning of the 20^th century.  Conditions in a cannery were dangerous:  “The cannery workers saw no rest.  There was talk of accidents  – all that blood and fish slime, you can imagine the cracked skulls, the broken limbs.  A spill of solder, a stumble against the boiling retort.  Fillers cut themselves on cans.  One of the slitters took two fingers off his own hand.”  The sights and smells are almost overwhelming.  When the camp opens in the spring, Anders mentions, “Already the water has begun to stink – the yards-wide streak of the shithouse drift, the waste of a hundred incomers or more.  In two days’ time the cannery will come clanking to life.  There will be blood on the waves, the sky wild with smoke and reeking steam.”

The discrimination faced by Chinese workers is also mentioned.  Chinese workers are hired at half the wage and housed in dilapidated, crowded buildings that are fire traps.  One character describes the riot in Vancouver in 1907 instigated by the Asiatic Exclusion League.  He makes a reference to the head tax Chinese immigrants must pay to come into the country and foreshadows the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923.  Yet it is the Chinese characters who are more honourable in their treatment of women. 

Anders is a very likeable character.  He doesn’t discriminate:  he is considered a good storekeeper by the Chinese because he charges them the same price as he does everyone else.  He looks after Bobbie, especially when Frank is away at war; he tries to protect Kit as much as he can; and he bails out Frank on several occasions.  He is not, however, a flawless person, something that is clearly demonstrated when he makes a dramatic revelation at the end.

The novel begins slowly, but tension ramps up.  Because of her past, Bobbie’s situation at the camp is not stable.  Frank returns from the war a broken man.  Anders’ trysts with a lover are dangerous.  The camp manager makes advances towards Kit.  And then there’s the mystery:  why did Bobbie abandon her family and leave with a Chinese man? 

The ending answers many questions.  In that respect, the ending is perfect in that it supplies a perfectly reasonable explanation for what happened.  Yet readers should be forewarned that the ending is not totally unambiguous. 

I highly recommend this novel.  It has an interesting plot, authentic characters, a vivid setting, and thematic depth. 

Note:  I received a digital galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.