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Article from B.C. BOOK WORLD
The haunting cover image on her book (also on the cover
of BCBW) is from a oil painting by Vancouver artist
Gideon L. Flitt called "The Theft" (1992),
currently in a private collection in Hamburg, Germany.
The image is quite ambiguous, and 1 find most people
can't give an explanation of what it's about,"
says Parkin, who immediately thought the painting, of
a man curled up on a chest of drawers with a woman standing
beside him, fitting for the cover of Woman with A Man
Inside.
Parkin first met the artist in the 1980s, when Flitt
worked as a hairdresser in a 4th Avenue salon where
several of his paintings hung. Parkin grew increasingly
intrigued by "The Theft," which she saw several
times over the years. '>Cochrane, her 'partner, initially
wanted to use The Theft for the cover of his 1995 book
of poetry, Boy Am I (Wolsak & Wynn), but the publisher
found the painting too controversial. Instead, another
Flitt painting (Ich schliesse meine augen 1993) ‑loosely
translated, "I Lie in the Sun With My Eyes Closed"
was used.
Parkin, 34, lives in Vancouver with poet Mark Cochrane
and their two children. Woman With A Man Inside is Parkin's
first book. "The stories are about so many issues
that concern men's and women's lives," 'says Parkin.
"There is no such place as normal, but 1 think
that people spend a lot of time looking for some kind
of normal."
As to the similarity of Cochrane's and Parkin's book
titles, Parkin says, "We certainly each came up
with our own title independently ~ but I'm sure that
we influence each others writing greatly ‑ possibly
more than we even know."
A fond but dysfunctional family is the subject of Monets
Garden (Thistledown 13.95) by John Lent of Vernon. From
childhood into marriage, Lent plots the course of the
Connellys from the Interior of British Columbia to the
heartland of French culture.Also from Thistledown, Word
of Mouth ($13.95) by M.A.C. Farrant, focuses on the
stories of Sybilla, whose life is rife with social inequity~
poverty and desire. Sybilla's story is juxtaposed with
the experiences of a B.C. family struggling to find
its identity amidst emotional strains and taut relationships.
That Saturday, Tom lay in bed reading. His arms hurt.
Shoulders ached. Five hour.
Michelle has been trying to have a baby for three years.
Once a month she takes a vial of her husband Steven's
sperm to the artificial insemination clinic. Deep down,
Michelle is convinced the reason she isn't able to conceive
is because she had an abortion when she was seventeen.
That's what some of the old women in the congregation
of her church told her. God punishes.Those were the
last words she heard before she ex‑communicated
herself. No one was going to punish her for the vacuum
aspirator that had tugged on her cervix in the clinic
years ago." Michelle is the main character in "The
Waiting Rooms", one of the stories in Woman With
A Man Inside (Nightwood $15.95) by Barbara Parkin,
a collection of stories that navigate through the fictional
The Waiting Rooms' was inspired by a friend who always
wanted a baby and had problems conceiving," says
Parkin.
"When she told me about dropping the sample in
the toilet, I suddenly realized how desperate she was.
When people are desparate, they tend to look for external
explanations for why things are the way they are."
In "Philipa of Harare," a young woman travels
to Africa to discover herself and escape the expectations
placed on her by her mother. In "You Are Mine",
an elderly woman tries to reconcile the effect of the
death of her daughter in law on her son and his children,
while coming to terms with selling her house and moving
to a retirement condo.
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