Here the Dark

It's another collection of stories shortlisted for the Giller Prize that seems an unlikely choice given the opening stories...

Distraught over the growing separation with his travelling girlfriend, guy organizes a Day Camp for tweens and falls for one of them. Followed by day drinking teacher cuckolded by his wife finds solace in “ample” coworker. Followed by grizzled cowboy in danger of losing his ranch screws rich paraplegic.

Do I really need to read about this sad parade of hand-wringing white guys?

But Bergen manages to nail the tone. There is this minor chord of entitled obliviousness that thrums in the background and the early cringey behaviour soon takes a darker turn with subsequent stories. Each unique and malevolent in their own way.

And then the titular novella about a Brethren girl questioning her faith and her place in the community. Coming to terms with her own feminist awakening and a stubborn refusal to merely submit to the ways of the patriarchal church. It feel like a stark turn from the previous stories and yet it's also faith, sex and being trapped within the narrow confines of our own histories but from a more traditional gendered lens.

Ok, maybe a bit of a stretch there - but nonetheless this collection is a polished effort with a high level of difficulty that Bergen manages to pull off.