Then, as Stephen’s camera work was softly praised, they would move with him away from the bridal party, away from the bridge. They would follow for a few minutes along the bank of the creek, the water moving fast and churned to mud in the middle of the current but much cleaner, almost crystal clear, in the pools along the edge, the surface of the water there held calm by clusters of rocks and stones and bright with reflected sun, with the slow, reflected swaying of trees. They would watch Sailor run ahead along the water and then turn back at Stephen’s call. And from a perfectly focused, extreme close-up of a Scotch thistle, so sharply, delicately barbed, its small, spiny flowers so perfectly mauve in the sunlight, they would be quickly lifted back to a long view of Stonebrook Creek turning through town on its way to the lake, its movement like a muscle twisting and their perspectives briefly jolted, just as Stephen intended.
Near the end of the second video, which was partly the dance and partly all of them at the house the next day, they would watch the scene on the wraparound porch and Stephen’s brief, unintended narration, his overheard command that they strut their stuff, would prompt a round of easy laughter. Pleasure would pass among them not because they knew Stephen well, they didn’t get to see him very much any more, but because what little they knew of him they quite liked, because even when it hardly mattered he had taken the trouble to choose his words.
Bill’s pictures, snapped by Cheryl and Tara, young curly-haired twin sisters who just happened to be walking past the Town Hall with their arms full of groceries, would be ready a week later. Although it was tight, there had been enough steps to hold all thirty-seven of them, Maggie and Josh and Margaret and Bill front and centre, Maggie in her beautiful gown with Sailor stretched out at her feet, panting, and all of them, except for Bill, looking perhaps a little too serious, Daphne and Jill perched on the step above, and the others standing not in their natural groupings but scattered, a husband separated from his wife, a sister nowhere near her brother, little kids content in the wrong arms.
Studying the pictures with a cup of tea at the kitchen table, Margaret would almost regret her insistence on knotting Bill’s tie for him. He likely would have been all right as he was. And she would decide that before too much time passed, someone with a fine hand should write all their names on the back of the pictures, in full, the placement of the names replicating the placement of the bodies, like a key, or maybe it was more properly called a legend.
Yes.
ALSO BY BONNIE BURNARD
Women of Influence (Stories)
Casino and Other Stories
Praise for Bonnie Burnard’s A Good House
“Wondrous … Burnard unrolls the tapestry of the narrative without ceremony or writerly pyrotechnics, in a deceptively simple style reminiscent of The Bird Artist by Howard Norman.… All that life has to offer is served up effortlessly, with clarity, understanding, and insight.… A gem of a book.”
—Valerie Ryan, The Seattle Times
“A Good House is a deep read. You keep finding more and more satisfaction in the unshowy craft, the unique vision of this writer who can tell you hard truths, hopefully.”
—Alice Munro, author of The Love of a Good Woman
“Beautifully written. The ordinary moments of life become luminous, lovely, under this compassionate eye.”
—Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle
“A Good House received the 1999 Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award (previous winners include Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood), and it’s easy to see why.… At once ambitious and wonderfully understated … The language is as plain—as elemental, if you will—as the people she so lovingly, and exactingly, describes. Taken together, these accumulated details work to create the illusion of life itself.”
—Sanford Pinsker, The Washington Post Book World
“A Good House is at least a ‘three hankie read,’ and it earns every one of them.… A good house? No, a great house, and a fabulous book. Bravo.”
—Mindy Werner, News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
“Their [the characters’] small dramas will linger in your thoughts long after you’ve put A Good House back on the shelf. Burnard has justly earned her place there alongside fellow Canadian authors Alice Munro, Carol Shields, and Margaret Atwood.… Solid as an oak beam.”
—Deborah J. Waldman, People Weekly
“It is a tale that takes its time, a story that gains power by the sheer accretion of details.… You have your favorites [characters], but Burnard convinces you with her humanity and her patience that they all matter, they count, in the way that every member of a family counts. And that is an achievement.”
—Heller McAlpin, Newsday
“Absorbing … Burnard is an inviting writer with a remarkable eye for detail, and so much of what she has to say about family and neighborly love is authentic and important.”
—Gabriella Stern, The Wall Street Journal
“A deeply moving story of the truths of family life.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“One of those quietly resonant novels that memorably portrays a family and a place as time presses on.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A true book, one to be treasured and shared with a sister, father, or best friend.”
—Jackie Pray, USA Today
A GOOD HOUSE. Copyright © 1999 by Bonnie Burnard. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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ISBN 0-312-42032-3
First published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
First Picador USA Edition: October 2001
eISBN 9781466891586
First eBook edition: March 2015
A Good House Page 33