A haunting portrayal of two soldiers
Famous British general, ex-soldier fighting PTSD complicate this plot
Kathleen Winter returns to the upper echelons of CanLit with her audacious new novel, “Lost in September.” A heartfelt portrait of Jimmy, an ex-soldier battling PTSD, it’s also a cryptic ghost story imagining 11 lost days in the life of 18th-century British general James Wolfe.
The novel opens with a letter to Wolfe from researcher Genevieve Waugh, who discerns in the man “a deep-hearted sadness.” Soon we’re knee-deep into questions about the true identity of the letter writer.
Winter casts this would-be Wolfe — best known as the “Conqueror of Canada” for his victory on the Plains of Abraham — as a deeply human character, seeking relief from a past full of doubt and regret, a history he feels has been unduly misconstrued. “A man can be important yet completely misunderstood.”
In tone and approach, Winter’s novel has much in common with George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo.” Winter shares Saunders’ sense of playful antiauthoritarianism, taking to task a military system recruiting disenfranchised rural youth.
She soon drops hints that ghostly Wolfe may not be who he claims. Repeated references to a mysterious Madame Blanchard, hints of an early life in Gaspésie, and invocations of Afghanistan complicate the plot.
It’s to Winter’s credit that these encroachments are subtle and incremental, just enough to keep the reader guessing at the relationship between James and Jimmy through to the novel’s finale.
In the end, the identity of our hero is perhaps less important than the themes of trauma, sacrifice, and intimacy which Winter so richly explores. Winter allows Wolfe a romantic bent, one of stirring comradely affection. “Was not my battle a festival of another sort of love?” asks James/Jimmy, toward the novel’s conclusion.
While at times the passages with researcher Waugh — and to a lesser extent, Harold, the “yellow man” who befriends Jimmy — can feel overly expository, it’s a book that uses a wealth of archival material to its advantage. As readers, we are tasked with navigating the mysterious heart of this brooding soldier, and the rich trove of historical letters serve as able way-finding guides.