sewn paper
Fiction
1994
160 pages
ISBN 0-88984-176-4
$12.95
City of Orphans
Patricia Robertson
A young Pole in a Canadian internment camp during World War I becomes obsessed with a female visitor. A contemporary young woman's baby develops a mysterious illness while her own life is invaded by dreams of a homesick Norwegian princess from the 14th century. The father of a British child disappears on the Canadian frontier in the early 1950s.
Luminous, sensual, haunting, City of Orphans weaves fantasy and reality together into stories of dreamlike intensity and hypnotic visual power.
`The 10 stories in Patricia Robertson's first collection of short fiction offer a somber, shadowed world of characters who strive for other, more magical destinations. The book's mood and images are stark and carefully controlled. And while Robertson roots each tale very firmly in the here and now, a few of her characters actually find their way into the imaginary....City of Orphans is a thoughtful, well-written collection.' `These ten stories show off Robertson's imagination and expansive stylistic
range to full advantage. Several of the stories draw from her experiences
abroad, while others are set in backwoods British Columbia, where Robertson
grew up. The characters range from a teenage hustler, to a mysterious
baker who is suddenly possessed by a long-dead Norwegian princess, to an
aging homosexual man living in self-imposed exile.
The stories in The City of Orphans are as different
from each other as snowflakes, but they share similar themes: grief,
suffering, defeat, rejection and always some mystery. There is a quality of
inscrutability in Robertson's work that makes it a perfect tonic for
boredom.' `City of Orphans is, astonishingly, Robertson's debut collection of
short stories. Astonishing, for her work is so assured. She has the strong narrative
control that's necessary for anyone using magic realism as a story-telling device.
In the ten stories that make up this collection, magic and fantasy heighten the
stories, without overwhelming them.' `One moment I was reminded of Virginia Woolf, at another Kafka; later of
Marguerite Yourcenar, but those moments were fleeting. Robertson and her characters
are independent and completely realized.
Read these stories now. Now, before they become part of the anthology-stew that steals
the flavour and the delight of personal discovery each of us feels when we encounter
an author with a voice that speaks so directly, we know she's writing for us alone.' The cover is after a painting, "Night Windows" by Edward Hopper, 1928. Photograph © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- Quill & Quire.
- eye weekly
- Montreal Gazette
- Charles Lillard, Victoria Times-Colonist
Photo by Sandy Reber
City of Orphans was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize - awarded to the best novel or story collection written by a British Columbia writer. Past winners have included Blue Husbands by Don Dickinson (1992) and Bad Imaginings by Caroline Adderson (1994). City of Orphans has been praised for its sensual and haunting stories and for Patricia Robertson's accomplished and sophisticated writing.
Patricia Robertson lives in Whitehorse.