Sunsetter is one of those books that enters the mind and leaves the reader with a strong sense of “Yes, this is truly what life is like.”
The novel unfolds against the background of the Sunsetter, an annual May event in the once booming town of Perron. Early in the novel, author Curtis LeBlanc reflects that “it’s the quietest places that tend to have the most troubled of sounds rumbling away, just out of earshot,” and as the plot unfolds, this is confirmed again and again, for the town, and for the central characters Hannah and Dallan.
“Sunsetter redefines the conventions of crime fiction.”
The Sunsetter is a weekend rodeo complete with midway, line dancing, beer tent, and bush parties. Some are drawn by interest or sentiment to the rodeo events, but for many, it seems, the Sunsetter is a place to release inhibitions and wander in an inebriated haze. A sense of dust and heat pervades. Details include the litter of escape: the bits of syringes, the used condoms, the smears of vomit. The grinding apparatus and heaps of electrical cables form the backdrop to a carnival of dull shades, interspersed by gaudy lights. The mood ranges between nostalgia and a need to walk among strangers cushioned by alcohol, weed, and pills.
Dallan and his friend Brooks plan to “roll” as part of their Sunsetter experience, a decision that ends abruptly in the death of Brooks. When Dallan, an introverted and shy college student, takes on Nick, who sold them their supply, the tragedy is compounded. He and Hannah, Nick’s girlfriend, form an unlikely alliance as they try to determine what is going on at the Sunsetter. As the weekend progresses, layer after layer of corruption in local law enforcement is revealed, and Dallan and Hannah discover more than they can safely carry.
The character who most drew my attention was Deputy Arnason, who began his “second career” as a supplier to cover nursing home costs for his mother and now finds this commitment leading him to new levels of violence and moral corruption. Yet there are moments of intense humanity as he reminisces with his aging mother in the nursing home or plays an intimate game of backgammon over soup with his wife. His final deterioration is even more tragic as we contemplate what he might have been.
Peripheral characters receive the same intensity, each description apt, each action meaningful. Hannah’s brother and Brooks’ mother have background roles, but they emerge as rounded characters we can visualize so well. Each person is Somebody; there are no lives of insignificance.
Exceptionally well-written, with honest characterizations and intense, poetic imagery (the atmosphere in the room as “thick with the night’s heavy breath”, for example), Sunsetter redefines the conventions of crime fiction. There is no tidy resolution here. The truth is revealed, but only to Hannah, not to the world. How she carries this truth will remain with the reader. This is crime fiction, but also literary fiction, and we will ponder the outcome, and the people of that outcome, for a long time.
Curtis LeBlanc is the author of two poetry collections, Little Wild and Birding in the Glass Age of Isolation. He is the co-founder and managing editor of Rahila’s Ghost Press, and his work has appeared in Joyland, The Fiddlehead, the Malahat Review, PRISM International, and elsewhere. Curtis lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Publisher : ECW Press (April 25 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 248 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1770416900
- ISBN-13 : 978-1770416901