VITAL SIGNS by Tessa McWatt (Random House), 176 pages, $24.95 cloth. Rating: NNNN
Tessa McWatt has a thing for medicine – fortunately. The hugely talented author is skilled at using medical material as metaphor. An earlier novel, Step Closer, deployed a ton of research on viruses to comment on how humans make contact and disconnect. In her new book, Vital Signs, she uses her grasp of brain aneurisms to great emotional effect. One thing about McWatt: she’s never clinical.
Michael and his wife, Anna, are in the doctor’s office, where she’s undergoing a series of tests. Gradually it becomes clear that a brain condition has messed with Anna’s language, making a mishmash of her words and memories. Michael has to figure out how to communicate with her so she can decide what procedures should be undertaken.
Their three young adult children – all very different – offer him little comfort. The youngest, a dancer, has the potential to offer support, but she’s not exactly reliable.
But the key to the story is Michael’s inner conflict. While Anna’s life is in danger, he continues to resent her power over him and is racked with guilt over a previous affair she’s never suspected.
Flashbacks convey the essence of their relationship, recalling incidents with their young children. In an especially effective sequence set in the Middle East, Michael discovers his capacity for jealousy.
McWatt has a gift for small details (Anna’s language lapses are remarkable), and her pristine prose captures intense emotion with painful precision.
In her expert hands, the story becomes a meditation on the human desire for control, our hubris in imagining we know the worst and the ways a crisis can change some things but not everything.
All in just 176 pages. Pretty damned good.
Write Books at susanc@nowtoronto.com
