A Song From Faraway by Deni Ellis Béchard

A “Story-Producing Story”

In James Wood’s essay “Serious Noticing” he makes this keen observation about fictional stories: “…one definition of a story might be that it always produces more of them. A story is story-producing. […] No single story can ever explain itself: this enigma at the heart of story is itself a story. Stories produce offspring, genetic splinters of themselves, hapless embodiments of their original inability to tell the whole tale.
Stories are dynamic combinations of surplus and lack: disappointing because they must end, and disappointing because they cannot really end. A real story is endless, but it disappoints because it is begun and ended not by its own logic but by the coercive form of the storyteller: you can feel the pure surplus of life trying to get beyond the death which authorial form imposes.”

A lengthy quote to begin a review, but it describes so strongly the experience of reading A Song From Faraway. It is a self-producing story with no real beginning, and certainly no end. And, of course, the reader is disappointed because he runs out of pages, thus ‘ending’ the story — on paper, at least. Mr. Béchard’s book is an enigmatic one in that it begins at what could be considered an ending of sorts, at least from a time perspective as it covers 1992 to the year 2008. The ‘oldest’ story begins in 1879. The story travels over several continents. This is a large, epic story contained within its 200 pages. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#4D5D76″ class=”” size=””]”A magnificent creation of enigmatic prose and conceptual realization, I’m putting A Song From Faraway on the 2020 longlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards in the Best Fiction category. 5 stars!”[/perfectpullquote]

Synopsis

I don’t even know how or where to begin laying out a synopsis of A Song From Faraway. There are two half-brothers, Andrew and Hugh who have the same father, a man with the last name of Estrada. The two brothers could not be more different, the typical Cain and Abel as it were. Andrew is the reserved, unemotional academic while Hugh obtains his education by drifting around North America and the Middle East. He shows up in Andrew’s life, popping into the story, too. Neither brother really knows the past history of their father, one who lived with Andrew and his mother until his death. Staying sequestered in his basement study, surrounded by books, chain-smoking his remaining years away. It is upon finding and reading his papers and manuscripts (and his three published books) that they (and the reader along with them) get to know just who their father was. Mr. Béchard tells the backstory in such a fascinating way that it held my attention until I finished it (which I really didn’t want to do).

Conclusion

Some of A Song From Faraway consists of previously published stories and merged with new material, the result is seamless. A magnificent creation of enigmatic prose and conceptual realization, I’m putting A Song From Faraway on the 2020 longlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards in the Best Fiction category. 5 stars!

*This review was based on an Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher.

A Song from Faraway by Deni Ellis Béchard
Goose Lane Editions

Please note if you choose to purchase this book (or Kindle version) through Amazon using the link below we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you cannot see the Amazon ad below (if you are using an ad blocker, for instance) here is the link: https://amzn.to/34dklZz Thanks!

Founding Editor -- Website

James M. Fisher is the Founding Editor of The Miramichi Reader. He began TMR in 2015, realizing that there was a genuine need for more book reviews of Canadian literature. It has since become Canada’s best-regarded source for the finest in new literary releases. James has been interviewed about TMR on CBC Radio and other media sites. He works as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Technologist and lives in Miramichi, New Brunswick with his wife Diane, their tabby cat Eddie, and Buster the Red Merle Border Collie.