In Canadian literature, people are constantly getting lost amidst snowstorms and have to trudge for miles through deep snow. That already is a great argument in favor of reading these books. Another point in favor of reading more Canadian books is the existence of David Adams Richards.
Nights Below Station Street is one of his early novels. David Adams Richards was only 38 when he wrote it, and he was over a decade away from having the maturity and depth to create his masterpiece Mercy Among the Children. In Spanish, we call the kind of writing one sees in Nights Below Station Street “costumbrismo”, or a depiction of customs and habits of everyday life. David Adams Richards doesn’t make any grand pronouncements or tackle great philosophical issues in the novel but simply writes about life among working-class people in New Brunswick. The novel is extremely peaceful even when it speaks of dysfunction. Everything is ultimately as should be. Everybody is where they are meant.
I’m fascinated by this writer’s trajectory, and I’ll keep reading him. Especially now that it’s hot as the dickens around here, and it’s good to imagine some snow.
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