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"Julian Fairfax had loved furtively and
unwisely. What he called his latest lapse was the Brat,
an artist more than twenty years his junior. When the
young man met Julian, he told him that he, Julian, had
the face of a violin virtuoso. Julian began to look
at his face in a new way. The Brat was right. He did
have the face of a violinist. Perhaps also it was the
face one might expect to see on a gracefully aging ballet
instructor. The Brat had also told Julian that he walked
lke a dancer. It was true. Julian walked just like a
dancer."
This novella is set in barren Saskatoon and
sumptuous Victoria. It is the story of Julian Fairfax,
an aging gay librarian who has remained in the closet
all his life. He is slowly turning grey from the soul
outward, but when a friend phones him one night and
asks for help, he is suddenly released into a bizarre
world of smuggling, adventure, and perhaps even love.
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| Critical Response
Carpenter . . . wanting to engage his readers
quickly, arms himself with a dazzling sense of linguistic
detail and a deft control of his sketching pen.
- Ian Nelson, Perceptions.
This tale is surrealistic, yet enough raw
fact emerges to anchor the reader firmly within an allegory
celebrating mid-life crisis as a spiritual rite of passage.
. . . [This novella] establishes Carpenter as a craftsman
who steps easily beyond the mundane to explore the just and
humane aspects of living.
- Sharon Drache, Ottawa Citizen.
This is a jewel of a novella, one of... craftsmanship
and artistry. There is craftsmanship in the dovetailing of
incident, the realization of character, and the achieved sense
of place. There is artistry in the suiting of craft to concept
so that another kind of place takes shape: a place for misfits,
the tired and forgotten ... a place of the heart, a home.
Perhaps some of my pleasure in reading Jewels derives
from my own taste for more than just a good read, for the
"conceal/disclose" [form] of narrative and for the use of
fiction to broaden sympathies as well as perspectives. More
objectively, however, it can be maintained that this is a
story that invites and repays re-reading.
- Hetty Clews, NeWest Review.
Elegantly entertaining, Jewels is
the story of a most unlikely set of criminal conspirators.
. . . [It is] readable, sometimes funny, often very moving.
- Joan McGrath, Canadian Book Review
Annual.
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 Reading
Excerpts
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