Cumulus Press, 2006
Read by Kelly Ward
It appears that 2006 has marked the stale-date on tragedy. Five years after 9/11, we in North America have decided that we can now be entertained by what happened in New York in 2001. Feature films and made-for-tv movies have begun using the producers’ imagined accounts of the events of 9/11 as subject matter. These films differ from our obsessions with 9/11 in previous years –they are wholly ficticious where previous books and film material have been widely interested in investigating the facts of 9/11 (read: Fahrenheit 9/11, The 9/11 Commission Report et al.)
It is unfortunate that David Bernans’ North of 9/11 was published in this particular cultural climate. Bernans’ novel centres on the aftermath of 9/11, specifically the backlash felt among a group of pro-Palestinian activists in Montreal. At first glance it may look as though Bernans is capitalizing (as many other creators of fiction have) on ongoing cultural conflicts that are, I would argue, nowhere near resolved. As I watch Hollywood painting stories of 9/11 with dramatic lighting and creative makeup, I can’t help but think that we are missing the point.
Bernans’ novel, however, side-steps these inherent pitfalls, and places the story in the realm of what we, as Canadians, can know for sure. 9/11 has had a specific and palpable effect on our national notion of multiculturalism. The conflict between the main character of Sarah and her American-born father illustrates this truth. Sarah’s involvement in peaceful protest reads to her father as terrorism because it is carried out alongside “Arab terrorist suspects” (read: students of Arab descent). By forcing his story to stay within this Canadian framework, Bernans allows the reader to consider 9/11 in a broader context of consequences. We are not taken inside the planes or into the back rooms of FBI investigations, but are shown characters who are truly “North” of 9/11, un-involved, and yet — as we all have been — forever changed.
Bernans has created a fiction that does what political fiction is meant to do — move readers toward a greater questioning of their surroundings.
