The Beggar's Garden

This week I finally finished a book I've been working on for a while, The Beggar's Garden by UBC alum Michael Christie.  He graduated with his MFA in Creative Writing, and so when the book first came out it was mentioned on the Arts Faculty facebook page, which is where I found out about it.  Christie's book is one of the few examples I know of a Short Story Cycle.  What this means is basically that its somewhere between a collection of short stories and novel.  In a Short Story Cycle, the stories are separate entities and can be read on their own, but also have some sort of linking factor between them.  The first cycle I came across was in Engl 222 at UBC, Canadian Literature, Margaret Laurence's A Bird in The House.  In Laurence's work, it was the same group of characters that linked the stories together.  In Christie's, its the setting of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

I bought the book for my aunt for her birthday, since her, my mom and their other 3 siblings grew up in East Van (expect no mercy), and I'd heard them tell stories about going to the Woodwards building on Hasting with my Gma when they were kids.  After my aunt finished the book, she generously lent it to me for a read.

I must say, I enjoyed it very much.  It's always neat to read fiction (or non-fiction in certain cases) set in locations you're familiar with, and some of Christie's stories were super innovative.  There are 9 stories in total, each of which I intend to give you a little tidbit about, in case you feel like reading Christie's work!  Short Stories aren't for everyone, but if you like short stories, you will almost certainly like at least half of these ones.

1.  Emergency Contact
This story was a combination of hilarious and heartbreaking.  Its about a woman living in the DTES who gets a bit of a crush on a paramedic and goes to some odd lengths to try to make something of it.  It was a good intro into the stories to be sure.

2.  Discard
Its been hard for me to choose a single favourite story from Christie's book, so I've narrowed it down to a top 3, and this is one of them.  Its absolutely adorable and really goes a long way into deconstructing some of the stereotypes and stigmas about the people who inhabit the DTES.  The main characters are a grandpa and his homeless grandson, and I came to love their connection.

3.  Goodbye Porkpie Hat
Ok, so this story is likely the one that would scare most people away from reading the rest of Christie's book, and also the one that is getting the most buzz in literary circles.  This story takes on the structure of a science lab (You know, Purpose, Materials, Method) and follows a crack addict living near Oppenheimer Park through some pretty messed up trips.

4.  The Queen of Cans and Jars
The main character of Christie's 4th story is a former employee of Woodwards who opens up a thrift shop when the department store closes down.  My favourite part of this story was that an oak desk Bernice (the protagonist) is forced to abandon in an alley is the same desk that Earl and his grandson pick up in "Discard", and in the following story, although its not made explicit, you know that two characters go and get clothes from Bernice's store.  I liked that by this, the 4th story, as a reader I had already experienced several different types of people who live and work in the DTES, something that continues throughout the text.

5.  The Extra
This story is written in first person, the second story to be narrated this way since "Emergency Contact". The narrator, who is never named, suffers from mental health issues, and his narration is really quite interesting because of it.  Some of the speaker's descriptions are so childlike, but so right on, like when he describes the dank basement he lives in as smelling "bad like your wrist when you leave your watch on too long".  The story is, like the first one, both funny and sorrowful at the same time- a combination that isn't easy to write. (Top 3!!)

6.  An Ideal Companion
In "The Queen of Cans and Jars" Bernice watches her old place of employment, the Woodwards building, being demolished to make room for a new apartment building for "young people".  In this story, the protagonist Dan is one of those young people.  The story is about Dan getting a rare breed of dog, and how it changes his life.  I don't like dogs very much, so I didn't find much use in this story, but maybe dog people would like it.

7.  King Me
If you MADE me pick a favourite...maybe this one would be it.  "King Me" is narrated by Saul, a paranoid schizophrenic patient at Riverview hospital (yes, the creepy one you drive by on the way to Coquitlam Centre).  His narration comes complete with delusions, which increase in frequency and craziness when Saul decides to go off his medication.  I really fell in love with this character, who amidst his mental escapades cares quite deeply about his fellow patients.  If you had to read just one story from Christie's book, I think I would recommend this one.

8.  The Quiet
This story was another one that didn't quite do it for me.  Its about a young car thief.  So maybe people who love driving (not to mention know how to do it) would get this story in a way I didn't.  The ending is kind of cool and unexpected though, and I liked that part.

9.  The Beggar's Garden
Ah the title story- and somewhat surprisingly, the first to feature a legitimately homeless character.  It had me thinking- most people would probably expect a series of short stories featuring the people of the DTES to focus pretty heavily on homeless people.  Christie dutifully shows that this isn't the case, showing that all sorts of people call the DTES home.  Good for you Christie!  This last story wraps up the cycle really nicely, following Sam, a bank employee recently left by his wife, who begins to occupy his time by "managing" a homeless man, and eventually (and somewhat unintentionally) getting him back on his feet, a gift actually reciprocated to Sam by Isaac, the "beggar", in an un-cheesy way.

Christie is a good local author, so if you think you might be interested in this text, help him out and buy it, and read it, and then let me know what you think!!!