Country Of Cold: Stories Of Sex And Death (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
There is much to like in this collection of loosely linked short stories. Number one on my list would have to be the story "Hudson Bay, In Winter", which is convincing in its depiction of the far north (not that I've ever been there). I see from the author bio that he has lived there working as a doctor, so that explains the outsider's take on the people and the landscape; what I didn't expect was how the writing here rises a notch from what precedes it in the collection, succeeding even more with a precision of language that has weight. This story comes late in the book, a book I seriously considered putting down unfinished, thinking I'd had enough of the failed medical professional tone, so I was pleasantly surprised that fresh material still awaited me. To back up, you should know that this collection starts awkwardly. Instead of giving us the first short story, the reader is presented with an untitled introduction that reminded me of the opening pages of a high school social studies text book. Apparently we are being introduced to a country: Canada, unique northern landscape. Thankfully, the commercial ended after two pages and I got to begin the feature presentation, the opening story about a man who is so hurt after a romantic breakup that he eventually decides to go over Niagara Falls in a high tech submersible. I know people do this, so I shouldn't scoff, but the stainless steel barrel going over the falls wasn't enough for the ending, there had to be a murder too. Maybe murder is overstating it, but manslaughter at least. Anyway, I didn't buy it. Between each story Patterson gives us more short untitled summaries or flash fictions, which reminded me of the flash fictions Hemingway uses between stories for In Our Time. Sometimes the interludes focus on a character from a previous story, filling us in on what happens to them later in life. And I have to admit, I rather liked these loose ends being tied up. They made the book feel like a sort of novel, which wasn't so bad, even if I balked at it because of the lame intro. Other than that, I found the book enjoyable but not amazing. Pretty hard to be amazing. I wouldn't say I'd recommend it, but I'm picky. I like Flannary O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", but not everything she wrote makes the cut either. You should know, Country of Cold won the 2003 Rogers Writers' Trust Award, which is no small feat.
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