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On the Shelf: Cataract City

Penulis : Unknown on Thursday, 3 October 2013 | 08:00

CATARACT CITY | Craig Davidson | Doubleday Canada | 2013
Owen and Duncan are childhood friends who've grown up in picturesque Niagara Falls--known to them by the grittier name Cataract City. As the two know well, there's more to the bordertown than meets the eye: behind the gaudy storefronts and sidewalk vendors, past the hawkers of tourist T-shirts and cheap souvenirs live the real people who scrape together a living by toiling at the Bisk, the local cookie factory. And then there are the truly desperate, those who find themselves drawn to the borderline and a world of dog-racing, bare-knuckle fighting, and night-time smuggling. Owen and Duncan think they are different: both dream of escape, a longing made more urgent by a near-death incident in childhood that sealed their bond. But in adulthood their paths diverge, and as Duncan, the less privileged, falls deep into the town's underworld, he and Owen become reluctant adversaries at opposite ends of the law. At stake is not only survival and escape, but a lifelong friendship that can only be broken at an unthinkable price.

Cataract City hooked me from the start. The back cover copy begins with this amazing line from the book: "Some places you just can't leave. The specific gravity's too strong, keeps you locked in orbit. You've got to be launched out, like a circus performer from a cannon." It's true that the story focuses on the ever-changing friendship between Owen and Duncan, but this book also tells the story of a city and how living in a certain place for so long impacts your personality. For Owen and Duncan, Cataract City (Niagara Falls, Ontario) transforms them in completely different ways, pulling them apart and forcing them back together at every unexpected turn.

I love how Davidson looks at the very different paths of Owen and Duncan. When we're children, it feels like our best friends will be around forever. Friendship is something that falsely advertises eternity and there isn't a thing or a person in the world that can divide us from those we spend time with day after day. Once you grow up, you learn this belief doesn't remain true. Friends come and go as we change and learn and grow. However, what Cataract City shows is that those experiences and memories shared between childhood friends have a lasting impact and intertwine the lives of everyone involved.

The first section of this book narrates the near-death experience that Owen and Duncan suffer through together. The writing is spectacular and completely horrifying in all the right places. I couldn't have put the book down through this beginning sequence even if I had wanted to - it was perfect suspense that made me continue reading even when I wasn't sure I wanted to know the outcome.

The experiencesD of adult Owen and Duncan show the underbelly of a city. Even a town like Niagara Falls, known for its tourism appeal, has a dark side. The lives of the characters and the life of the city fuse together as we learn how these men navigate the decisions placed before them. Even the epilogue in this novel is worth talking about. Sometimes prologues and epilogues seem unnecessary add-ons, but this one is essential. Once I finished the book, I had no doubts about why Davidson is on the Giller Prize longlist this year.

"This was a vital part of my life, right here. And it was gone now. I felt sick with nostalgia. Memory like a sickness, memory like a drug. I stood in the lengthening shadow of the lane, swallowed up by the black hole of my past."

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