Grandview Drive

Tim Blackett

Grandview Drive

Published by Nightwood Publications

02 April 2024

By Frank Valish

Grandview Drive it's the first effort from Saskatchewan's Tim Blackett. The book is a collection of 16 short stories that capture the loneliness, isolation and often desolate nature of the human experience. One of its fascinating elements Grandview Drive is that all the stories here are interconnected. An accident is witnessed by a child, parents and pastor's son, all of whom have their own story or stories within the collection. Connections between players are made in time as one reads, working to piece together a bigger picture from these separate narratives. Often the lives of the players inside Grandview Drive they live in the shadows. The past is haunting and the present is often disappointing. Each story affects in its own way, and sometimes in reading Grandview Drive it feels like one's entire formative history is unfolding for review. But ultimately what these interwoven stories betray is the universality of emotion contained within them. In this way, his often struggling, sometimes borderline pathetic characters Grandview Drive we become all of us, our wounds are exposed, but with the realization that ultimately every house on the block faces the same. (www.nightwoodeditions.com)

Author Rating: 7/10