Study for Obedience is an unsettling and profoundly beguiling novel practically demands rereadings
“It was the year the sow eradicated her piglets. It was a swift and menacing time. One of the local dogs was having a phantom pregnancy. Things were leaving one place and showing up in another.” The opening lines ofA Tale of Two CitiesWhich is not meant to disparage Sarah Bernstein’s strange, unsettling and profoundly beguiling. Bernstein, a poet from Montreal now living in the Scottish Highlands, is hailed on the cover as “an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction.
When the brother leaves on a business trip, the narrator, suddenly at loose ends, distracts herself with a visit to the village. There, the townspeople visibly recoil from her, parents covering their children’s eyes as she passes them by. She can only guess at the reasons for such behaviour. Despite being a master of several languages, the town’s local dialect – to her shame – eludes her.
The absence of dialogue – everything is filtered, monologue-style, through the narrator – adds to a building feeling of claustrophobia and uncertainty. Can she really be the cause of all the chaos and dyings-off? Correlation isn’t causation, of course, but try telling that to the townspeople. Now when the narrator enters the local diner to grab a bite, the place practically clears out.
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