D.W. Wilson - Ballistics

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Gripping, thoughtful and insightful

I thought this was an excellent book. It's not perfect, but it has real depth, a powerful narrative drive, distinctive and evocative prose and has a lot of very insightful things to say, particularly about men and boys. Set in small-town and rural Western Canada, the story concerns Alan, a young man who was brought up there by his grandfather who has a heart attack and sends Alan on a quest to find his father. Told in two narrative voices, we hear the present-day story from Alan intercut with the story of how Alan's parents came to meet and the fallings out and feuds which led to the estrangements which drive the plot, narrated by Archer, whose place in it all becomes clear as the book progresses.

D.W. Wilson writes very evocative, quite poetic prose and generates an excellent sense of place, especially as a colossal forest fire begins to take control of events. There is fairly constant tension between characters which sometimes spills over into violence and keeps the book exciting. What makes this book special for me, though, is the characterisation and especially Wilson's deep understanding of the minds of tough, seemingly self-sufficient men and the way they relate to (and fail to relate to) one another and to women. There are scenes of great tenderness and of crackling tension, and I was gripped pretty well all the way through.

I have seen the words macho and even super-macho used to describe this book, but this is no Hemingway-like celebration of macho manhood. It is a tragic, regretful, almost compassionate portrait of how such men can damage their own and others' lives and how festering enmity can eventually lead to isolation, loneliness and destruction. I found it remarkably insightful and honest, and often very, very sad.

The book isn't perfect. It gets a bit rambling at times and could do with a little cutting in places, I thought, and it's not always easy to tell whose voice we're hearing which can be a distraction when the narration switches, but I still thought it worthy of five stars. Something this well-written and this insightful doesn't come along often, and I would recommend this very warmly to anyone looking for a thoughtful and haunting novel.