FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| BOOKS Peripheries: Three Novellas In Helene Littmann's Peripheries, the main characters attempt to negotiate the shifting circumference, or fringe, of mainstream society, as represented by society's "radical" components (radical in this case meaning slackers, punks, activists, Gen Xers). These really complex and difficult negotiations take place on the West Coast - the really radical edge of the North American continent. Are you sensing some sarcasm here? That's probably because this book's title, with its tidy set of denotative and connotative meanings, is the most interesting and radical thing about it. It's not that Peripheries is a bad book, or even a thoughtless book, it's just a bit too realistic and not at all... well... radical. Want some examples? In "Ground Zero," an art school drop-out named Stephanie works for a grant-funded peace education project, struggles to hold on to her disillusioned journalist boyfriend, worries about her father's involvement with a political scandal, and eventually buys a plane ticket to someplace hot in an effort to jump-start her sagging, pseudo-activist life. "Midsummer," the second novella, finds Madeline returning from Europe to a job in a trendy second-hand clothing store, a dirty apartment sublet from her punk friend Kelly, a relationship with an intriguing but cold (not again) journalist, and confused feelings over her old, boring-but-nice friend Carl. "Pesadilla Beach" changes the setting to behind the barricades of an anti-logging camp. Its protagonist, Amanda, is a temp-cum-photographer who almost gets sucked back into her old "alternative lifestyle" by a cute, extremely young activist named Cody. In the end, her ambivalence lands her back in her Ikea decorated apartment, working as a data entry specialist at the college. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar to you? Like a conversation overheard at a café? Like your own or your friends semi-boring, semi-radical, semi-realized lives? Peripheries has too much realism of the wrong kind. No change. No growth. No hope. Tami Friesen |