Reading Journal: Correction Road, by Glen Dresser (2007)

I shouldn't be surprised to read another great book from tiny Oberon Press, (of Ottawa); John Metcalf's still editing there, and, (though I wasn't a Pomerance fan), they publish only the finest. For his part, Glen Dresser has written a book that's interesting from the first page, telling as it does of a rat catcher in a small town on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border - from the perspective of the rat, by times. I really liked the semi-frequent returns to the rat, who would soliloquize about his omniscience and the scenes' impact on him, the lowly one we never think about. The human characters are small time and small town, and though the ones in their early 20s speak like they're older, the story is simple and affecting, with old friendships and troubled couples and family tensions and adulterous temptations at every turn. A book with a real rythym to it that's easy to get caught up in, and another excellent Canadian small-press find.