A story that moves in different directions
Four Edmonton authors wrote Project Compass — but without consulting one another
Novels written from multiple points of view are nothing new — think Wilkie Collins’ groundbreaking mystery The Woman in White, published in 1860, all the way up to the 4,228 pages so far of G.R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Yet the recently released novel Project Compass takes shifting perspectives to a new place — and it’s set right here in Edmonton.
Written by four local authors independently, the novel is four different stories edited into rotating chapters of one book. Each chapter is named after a cardinal direction, indicating in which side of town the thread takes place.
North, by Lizzie Derksen, is about a woman rejected by her children and husband, and written in the second person. In Robert Strong ’s unreliable first-person narrative, West, aging Conrad struggles with his caregiver. Matthew Stepanic’s saucy East has touches of magic realism, exploring app-enabled gay hookup culture. Kristina Vyskocil’s South, meanwhile, is third person like Stepanic’s, and deals with a young woman named Terri basically having the worst day of her life.
The book is funny, sexy, harrowing and hopeful in turn. Without comparing notes, there are curious coincidences throughout, and four very different, not always positive, takes on Edmonton.
Coming up with the concept, Monto Books’ Jason Lee Norman hoped to influence the authors as little as possible within a simple framework.
“I wanted this to be different voices, but still have it feel like one cohesive novel in one specific place, four different narratives starting at four corners of the city, working towards the centre,” he said.
Each story deals with an impending confrontation. The book is set on the longest day of the year. Everyone ends up in or near Riverdale and the valley.
Editing it into one novel was intuitive for Norman — who also brought us the 40 Below short story collections. He took advantage of time shifts and natural breaks to divide what was essentially four novellas into 24 chapters, roughly six rolls through each.
“It was my job to sew everything together. Time had passed, and there’s a couple naps in there,” he laughs. “They made my job very easy. The stories started to complement each other.”
Because of the rotating nature of the novel, I asked each author the same questions: how do they think their stories complement each other, and what they like about the arrangement. Derksen: “The most interesting thing about this arrangement of stories is the way they talk around each other. Characters from one narrative stream end up inadvertently making statements about characters in other streams. One particular example is the way my narrator talks about the university students seen on the street, the way they’ve all come from each other’s beds. This is literally true about both the East and South characters in the present, and the West character in the past.
“Having my own story made richer and more complex by these accidental — since we didn’t engineer them, or even talk to each other while we were writing — referents is strangely satisfying.”
Said Strong: “I find that the stories work together by allowing elements of Edmonton to become noticeable. The distinct voice that the different narrators bring to the book draws attention to a common feeling about what it is to be living in this city.
“I guess it’s the different ways of saying the same thing that allows the reader to take away something that might be lost in the background if the stories were just read on their own.”
Said Stepanic: “I appreciate that we didn’t put in a large effort to make sure the stories intertwined and connected, as the connections I have found surprised me and feel natural. For instance, did Walmart sponsor the book with their appearances in two separate stories?
“I like that the reader is naturally looking for connections and puts in probably more work than even we could. Between Kristina’s story and mine, I found it interesting the way that technology played into both narratives, and how we both had two lonely characters looking for more personal connections.”
He added: “Also, urban sprawl and transportation in Edmonton definitely comes up, as each character seems to have some difficulty getting across the city. I believe this is a unique Edmonton problem for such a large metropolis.
“I know that Jason organized the stories by time periods, but I felt like the story flowed nicely with the breaks, and added tension to some scenes that may have not been there before if you read each story separately.”
Importantly, Vyskocil noted: “The stories fit and work together largely because their arrangement offers the reader choice: readers can read the narratives collectively and chronologically, individually or in sections. The arrangement reminds me of Choose Your Own Adventure books I read when I was younger.”
I also asked the four what they would title their stories, if not the four primary compass directions.
Said Vyskocil: “Adularia. When I began writing the story, I was fascinated by images of boulder opals: vividly coloured iridescent rocks that appear to burst through cracks of weathered wood fossil. The opals looked as though they contain entire worlds, galaxies and universes within them. As I returned to the images, I considered how every Edmontonian has a universe inside them, which we only catch glimpses of when they shine through the cracks.”
“A Necessary Loneliness,” Strong said. Though, “I don’t have a clue. I haven’t put any thought into an alternate title.”
Fair enough, and Stepanic said: “I hate coming up with titles, so I’d almost want to leave it as East.
“But also, I like the idea of calling it Meat after the hookup app, as the story is also about meeting and connections and the male body. This should probably be a shorter answer, but Missed Connections would also be a good title, since something is missing in all of these hookups.”
And, looking to the future, Derksen explained: “My file while I was writing was titled Solstice, which is not the most interesting title. I also think it’s already been used.
“I do need to come up with a punchier title, though, since I’m planning to revise and expand my novella-length section into a fulllength novel.”
Project Compass can be purchased online at montobooks.com, at Audreys and Tix on the Square, and at Chapters and Indigo locations around the city in which its surprising journeys are set.