Review
IN THE FIRST EARLY DAYS OF MY DEATH
by Catherine Hunter
Signature Editions, 141 pp.
Catherine Hunter’s quirky third novel begins with the sudden and mysterious death of Wendy Li, who finds herself floating above the streets of her native Winnipeg. Certain she’s been murdered by her husband’s jealous ex-lover, an erotomaniacal convenience store clerk/amateur witch named Evelyn, Wendy cannot rest until justice is served – or at least until someone remembers to tend her garden.
In the First Early Days of My Death is a Canadian, literary, supernatural, murder mystery psycho-thriller. Ghosts, premonitions, magic spells, coincidence and accidents rule the lives of Hunter’s characters, and as they fight for control over their own destinies, an overriding theme unfolds: Does fate rule our lives or does chance?
Those who side with fate will appreciate that Hunter’s narrative leaves nothing to chance. By the story’s end, no loose thread is left untied. Her writing is economical, clever and meticulously crafted – so much so that at times, the story feels contrived: "I took a chance," Wendy says about opening the door that introduced her to death. Her stupid but loving husband Alika is "confident in his own luck," and one of her foster mothers, Mrs. Kowalski, protests the city’s construction of a new five-star casino because she "doesn’t believe in games of chance." Such frequent and overt references to theme keep the reader on the story’s surface, admiring its artifice.
And its artiface is admirable. Smart but simple dialogue opens windows into the characters’ world views, and Hunter has a knack for using language that jumps off the page onto your skin and into your ears: "I laid the beets down on the porch in the shade and picked up the glass of lemonade, listening to the ice cubes clink and fizz. I held the glass against my damp neck. Then I drank it down and poured myself another."
Hunter provides rare but poignant glimpses into the deeper psyches of her characters: "I understood, all right," Wendy says, explaining how she became a foster child. "I got the picture. A great drama had surrounded my conception and birth. A grand, greedy, voluptuous, star-crossed passion had occurred, and I had been left out of it. I was the residue."
Wendy’s quest to be at the centre of the great drama surrounding her death is what makes this book such an engaging and suspenseful read.
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