Thorold author dreams of utopia
Time is irrelevant, and no internet, clocks or even calendars exist in Tony Vandermaas’s latest novel.
The few who survive “The Event,” which has wiped out most of Earth’s population in the aftermath of global warming, are left to rummage through the remnants of abandoned ghost towns for scraps of food in his grim glimpse into the future.
I f Vandermaas had his way, he’d live in a remote cabin, completely off the grid. For a time, the selfproclaimed former hippie and student of the 1970s survivalist movement came close to that, when he and his wife Penny were newlyweds.
“I used to be in the back- to-the-land movement,” he recalls. “In the ’ 70s, a lot of the hippies’ vision was falling apart, and it seemed like our next step was to drop out of society and create our own.
“My buddies and I used to go on survival trips in the wilderness. I have a stack of books on building log cabins and wind plants. I took a number of courses on foraging for edible plants.”
Years later, the retired Stelco worker, former city councillor, town crier and founder of Thorold’s Santa Claus parade described what that lifestyle might be like in his novel Dreams of Utopia.
In a word, it’s about survival, with the characters’ will to live driving the majority of the action.
“We can survive most things with knowledge and the ability to apply it,” Vandermaas says, but while adding, “Human beings are their own worst enemies.”
He says the book is also a bleak cautionary tale about what happens when people wield power over others.
Some chapters read like a western, complete with Wild Westtype shootouts, while other parts provide the actual pragmatic framework for building dams to harness hydro. Beneath it all lies an undercurrent of the basic human need for love and friendship.
Throughout the author’s foray into the future, as main characters Devon and Sara dodge constant danger and eke out a hardscrabble existence, Vandermaas makes the reader root for them.
Asked if he sees himself as Devon, he chuckles.
“Yes, to some degree, when I was around 20. Devon and Sara are both fiercely independent. I would call myself that. I’m not a good follower.
“I learned that my dad wasn’t too big on authority, either. My dad was hauled off to slave labour in Germany at age 14 to dig the depression for the home guard. He purposely dug them the wrong depth.”
Having moved to Hamilton from Holland with his family at age four, the author grew up in Grimsby and has spent most of his adult life in Thorold.
A father of two, grandfather of four and an avid historian, he’s written a trilogy of historical novels about the War of 1812, but this is his first self- published work of fiction.
“This is an idea that’s been in my head for about 20 years. About two years ago, I didn’t want to write another historical novel, so I started looking through old projects I abandoned.”
That’s when he found the plot line of people forced to become scavengers and futuristic pioneers, after failing to plan for coastal flooding from global warming.
“If they start moving people now, it won’t be such a problem in the future,” says Vandermaas.
Having taught his children how to make a fire and fend for themselves in the wilderness when they were little, he firmly feels that basic survival skills should be taught in school.
“It’s really just a story about carrying on. No matter what happens, people will carry on in the way they know best.”
Dreams of Utopia is available at Chapel Street Designs at 46B Front St., Thorold, or by emailing the author directly at anoriginal@sympatico.ca.