Tent of Blue

By Rachael Preston

Tent of Blue , Rachael Preston's richly conceived first novel, seduces readers with images of captivity and escape. Passing back and forth through time, the novel has its beginnings in England before and during the Second World War. The present is a somewhat seedy mansion-turned-apartment in Vancouver's Shaughnessy neighbourhood and the beaches of Kitsilano and Jericho in the 1950s. The future, or at least the fantasy, is the unattainable Salt Spring Island. In this astonishing novel, Preston creates characters that are trapped by cruelty, poverty, war, and their own minds and bodies. Gradually they awaken to the fact that they carry within themselves the possibility of freedom and the power to achieve it. The novel's images of war-torn beaches, cold, dank theatres, and travelling by bicycle through the streets of Vancouver will linger with readers long after the book is closed. The book tells the story of Anton, a boy of almost sixteen, who suffers the challenges of a clubfoot and Yvonne, his mother, a dance teacher who spent her youth in the decayed music halls of 1930s England. Grotesquely mistreated by her drunken mother, fourteen-year-old Yvonne finds fleeting freedom with a Russian-born dancer. After his death, needing to provide for herself and Anton, she falls into the grip of a brutal impresario and eventually migrates to Montreal and shortly thereafter to Vancouver. Yvonne alternately spurns and smothers her son as she plays the only two roles she knows: victim and victimizer. Both have been imprisoned their whole lives: Yvonne by her fear of her abusive mother, of losing her lover, and of Harold, the man who sweeps her into his control and makes her his wife. Anton has been a prisoner of his physical handicap, of Yvonne's unhappiness, and of Harold's hold on both his and his mother's life. In their Vancouver apartment, Yvonne and Anton struggle to live heroically despite the scathing violence of love. Yvonne opens a dance school where she teaches her few ballet students. Anton struggles for respect and independence and finds a measure of freedom through his wheelchair and apartment bound neighbour, Tom Hart, a World War I vet, who supplies Anton with an old bicycle. Anton tries to return the favour in the only way that he can imagine. Dickensian in its complexity, Tent of Blue marks the career debut of a fascinating new Canadian writer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0864923422
• ISBN13: 9780864923424
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Tent Of Blue

Over the Christmas break I have put aside, all the other books and magazines competing for my attention and read a new novel Tent of Blue. I'm glad I did so. Here is a remarkable story of human triumph over adversity - or at least a triumph of sorts. Yvonne will always remained damaged by the events that shaped her tragic life, and as a result be misunderstood and mistrusted. For me she is the heroine of the story; and I'm left hoping that Anton will eventually gain the insight that maturity brings, to accept his mother's strengths and not just her weaknesses.I am no literary critic, nor do I profess to any knowledge of composition or novel structure. Nevertheless, I am aware of the considerable skills used in shaping this narrative. The parallel story lines are very effective and it was interesting to see how they converged towards the end of the novel. It is extremely well conceived and beautifully written.The book contains scenes of great tension and suspense - Anton's trespassing into Jasmine's apartment for instance, is as good as anything I've ever read. The character of Harold Crouch could be straight out of a J.B. Priestley saga. The reader has a clear picture of the man and the shady twilight world in which he exists. It catches well the feel (and fear) of living in wartime London (and Blackpool!).The description of Yvonne's evacuation was vivid and poignant - her expulsion from the only world she's known into a strange rural environment and a family of well-meaning strangers will be familiar ground for those who had it to endure (including, briefly my own mother and her two eldest children.) This, already unwelcome event then becomes compounded by a tragic loss of life - a scenario handled touchingly.As in all good novels, in truth there is no ending. Life simply goes on - the poor reader being left to speculate on how the various events were finally resolved - if ever.Certainly, the cover's quote "a novel that lingers long after the final page" is inescapably true. That this happens is due in no small part to the author's skill in defining the events and characters that are meaningful and at large in the hostile world she creates for them.I don't know the rules of grammar; I only know what reads well. I open the book at random and find for instance: "When Yvonne opened her eyes again, the shadows in the room had lengthened and shifted. The air felt stiller, tasted staler than before. She licked her lips, her mouth dry and sticky. Such sentences compel the reader to continue, and there were numerous occasions when reading the book when I couldn't put it down. In short, Tent of Blue is a tremendous achievement and one that fills me with nothing but admiration for the writer. This is, I understand, a first novel, and I look forward to her next. Long may she continue to express herself and portray life with such imagination, warmth and candour.

My Favorite Novel This Year

If you like reading novels you can't put down with characters who become friends you don't want to say goodbye to then you will love Rachael Preston's "Tent of Blue." The compelling plot focuses on a mother and son whose stories are cleverly told in alternating chapters. Yvonne's tale begins in 1930's England where she is enslaved by her chillingly abusive mother, while Anton's story is set in Vancouver during the 1950's where he too suffers oppression under his mother's domination. As Yvonne's story develops over several decades the reader journeys with her through the hardships that bring her to her current situation and in the process, we learn much of Anton's history as well. The author transitions with ease from pre-war England in one chapter to post war Canada in the next, moving the action along at a rhythmic, page turning pace, creating suspense as the two stories merge into a poignant conclusion. Just as interesting are the secondary characters; even the most despicable manages to evoke sympathy. It is Preston's skill with prose that enhances this character development and engrossing plot. Rich in imagery that is at times stark and menacing, while at others sweet and lyrical, the characters react to each other and their circumstances with a vividness that carries the reader along with them."Tent of Blue" is a story of the innocence of dreams, the joy and dysfunction of love, the pain of emotional imprisonment, and of the resiliency of the human spirit. I was absorbed by this novel from first page to last and I highly recommend it.