cover image Coming Through

Coming Through

David Helwig, . . Bunim & Bannigan, $22 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-933480-16-9

These three novellas from veteran Canadian writer Helwig deal darkly in regret, revenge and foiled ambition. In “The Man Who Finished Edwin Drood,” narrator Wicked Uncle reminisces about stealing his love, “the Dutchess” (she is Dutch), from her children and husband, Orland. The Canadian winter setting matches the prose—grim and cold—as Orland returns and Wicked Uncle wonders if the Dutchess would ever leave him. “The Music of No Mind,” transcribes the eponymous three-part lecture delivered by an embittered retired professor hired at the last minute to replace the original speaker—the narrator professor’s former rival who suddenly died. During his convoluted discourse—part anecdote, part rant, but all magnificently venomous—he, among other things, sullies the name of the dead and alienates his ever-dwindling audience. “A Prayer to the Absent” chronicles the restless wandering of Carman Deshane, a widower and retired Toronto cop who realizes “without that suit of clothes, he wasn’t there at all.” His wanderlust eventually leads him to a dilapidated cottage rented out by Norma, a lonely, stubborn woman with whom he shares a mutual dislike. Yet their connection keeps Carman in place. Helwig is a formidable talent, and his unpleasant characters are a pleasure to spend time with. (Sept.)