PROGRESS by Michael V. Smith (Cormo-rant), 260 pages, $21 paper. Smith launches Progress at the Gladstone on Wednesday (April 27). See listing. Rating: NNN
The word “progress” has multiple meanings for Michael V. Smith. First, it’s an ironic reference to a mammoth dam project. Progress, maybe, but it also signals the death of a small town and forces long-time resident Helen to relocate her home.
Her brother Robbie is making slow progress toward accepting his queerness. Returning to the hometown he left for reasons Helen wants to understand may allow him to close the closet door behind him.
And progress means money, enough of it so executives behind the dam want to hide an industrial accident Helen has witnessed so they can finish construction on schedule.
Unfortunately, Smith mishandles this last narrative element. It’s the first sequence in the book, and a powerful one. Helen’s anxious drive through a town going through distressing changes is described in taut, evocative prose. Arriving at her mother’s grave, she sees in the distance a man falling into a pit, and goes into a full-scale panic.
But Smith abandons that storyline to develop the relationship between the siblings. Robbie’s got a big, fat secret that he knows will devastate his sister, and Smith expertly builds the tension until the truth comes out.
But what about that industrial accident? More than 100 pages go by before he returns to it. Early on, Helen makes a half-hearted attempt to interest a local journalist in the story, and that should have set the scene for any number of menacing threads that Smith could have woven into the narrative.
Too bad. But Smith has a ton of talent, and the story carries a huge emotional charge.
susanc@nowtoronto.com
