RL BARBER

Set in the fictional town of Fitzback, a remote community in Northern Ontario. The story follows Jim Rainey a school teacher who relocates to this town with his family. The move provides Jim with many enriching teaching experiences. It also results in a terrible consequence for Rainey and his family.

​

After settling in, Rainey becomes interested in the history of the place. He learns that the aboriginal people were the first to come into this area. Leaving behind dreadful, changing circumstances, they thought they left the evil spirit, Muche u' cha'k, back at Fort Albany on James Bay, where they brought their furs to the English. Later, they learned it followed them. At this time and well past that previous century, Jim observes the adversities of the descendents. Rainey, who does not believe in a malevolent spirit, also sees the white community here has many of the same afflictions.

 

For newcomers like the Raineys, there are many surprises. In winter the temperature can plummet to fifty below for six weeks at a time. Blizzards whip up when they are driving and are hundreds of kilometers from another town. This prompts a prayer that a logging truck doesn't pass throwing up a blinding white out. They also fear their water pipes will freeze, denying them the luxury of their bath tub until June. Then, there is the visit to the school by a medicine man that has wacky consequences.

 

There are gruesome scenes in this novel. The undertaker, Wilf Strickland, suggests that the Halliday Funeral Parlour should open a branch plant in Fitzback, since he comes so often to bury young people who die in parked cars, or car crashes, from gunshot wounds, or other handy ways of dying, One death, however, involving the torture and murder of a young aboriginal girl, remains unknown to the community. The identity of the monster responsible is not revealed to the reader until later in the story.

 

There are as well many colourful characters and humourous stories that are always circulating in this town, however, there is also an endless supply of shameful stories. One character observes that living in Fitzback is like living in a goldfish bowl where all the shit from the past gets stirred up. After a tragic event strikes the Rainey family, some of these nasty rumours become attached to them. When  they leave Fitzback, they are not fully aware that the spirit of Muche u' cha'k will follow.