Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club

By Megan Gail Coles

visible front dining room, with people trying to act like good, upstanding citizens, and the steamy, rooty kitchen, where dark secrets are revealed.

We have Olive, a young, indigenous woman, and Iris, a struggling artist and waitress, both from Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, whose experiences serve to present the great historic rural/urban divide in this province. We have Omi, an immigrant from Nigeria who works at the restaurant. We have John, the owner, and his privileged wife, George. We have Damian, the gay waiter. We have Calv and his friend, Roger, two goons who have never been taught (or refuse to understand) that women should be given the opportunity to consent to a sexual act.

Coles gives us all these characters and more, and shows us how they have learned to accept a larger or smaller heap of suffering depending upon their station in life. There is an uncomfortable feeling of “knowing one’s place” in this novel: underbelly of humanity. And she deftly explains the historical and societal implications of each uncomfortable act: “Damian let that girl walk out of there without trying to help her. Didn’t even ask if she was okay. Didn’t even call her a cab…though Damian was quick to defend himself because he was taught… to perpetually feel deservedly under attack.”

The power dynamics between rich and poor, indigenous and white, and male and female are not just implied in this book, they are wildly real and complex. The wayward behaviours of each character are punctuated by rich explorations of their childhood traumas and present-day stressors.

All of this is set against a backdrop of cold and slush. Light a candle when you read this book, and have a sweater nearby. You will feel the needles of sleet spraying from the tires of the passing oil workers’ trucks. You will shed a tear for tender skin.

There is no hero in this story. Rather, there is a call for all of us to do better, to speak out more, to have some dignity, and to look after those less fortunate than ourselves.

This book is available at the Bibliothèque Lennoxville Library.