Carolyne J Montgomery - Reader & Writer

Carolyne Reads and Writes

Social responsibility

Open Secrets

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Many of us were shaken this week, Andrea Robin Skinner, (ARS), revealed in a first-person piece in the Toronto Star, that she had been sexually abused as a nine-year-old when visiting her mother and stepfather, Alice Munro’s second husband, Gerald Fremlin in 1976.  And worse, when ARS told her parents, she received no support. 

I wondered what was up when Munro Books in Victoria (started by Jim Munro in 1963, but with independent owners since 2014) cancelled an Alice Munro celebration in support of ARS.  You can read their statement here.

In 2005, when ARS was in her thirties, Gerald Fremlin was charged with indecent assault and received two years probation in a court ruling in Clinton, Ontario.

After decades of isolation from her family in her late forties, after her divorce, ARS began therapy with The Gatehouse, a therapeutic centre for victims of childhood sexual abuse, in Etobicoke. The Gatehouse’s vision is “a future where those impacted by childhood sexual abuse can heal and reclaim their voices. Her piece survivor’s story from Oct 22nd, Andrea: To heal is truth and peace can be found here. There is also a video, So Let’s Talk About This, by ARS, crediting her sister Jenny Munro with production and Rebecca Garrett, who runs a media company, for camera, editing and direction. Subsequently, The Toronto Star published her story on July 7th. This article and several others by Deborah Dundas, Betsy Powel, Heather Mallick, Stephan Marche of the Star and Marsha Lederman of The Globe and Mail are behind paywalls.

The Writing versus the Writer

Learning that AM did not act to protect her daughter is a bitter pill to swallow. Can and should one separate the writer’s morality from the greatness of their work? 

While it would be a tragedy to erase her work from literary study, it is appropriate to examine what she wrote in light of this new knowledge—A mother who failed to protect her daughter and who remained married to the man who was abusing her youngest daughter. A mother, living with the knowledge that she failed to protect her daughter. A mother, whose actions led to her estrangement from her daughter. 

But why was Andrea not protected?

We can only speculate as to why AM made these choices. Fear? Fear of damage to her reputation and career? Fear of Financial loss? Fear of rejection or abuse by her husband?

Blame? Her daughter’s behaviour and not her husband’s. Blame the victim. 

Shame? And thus denial of the implications of the abuse?  

Impotence? A sense that she was powerless to change the situation?  

We don’t know AM’s story. Was she a victim of abuse? Is this an intergenerational story?

We can only speculate on the complicity of the CanLit world in protecting AM’s reputation. Who knew this secret but did nothing to help Andrea or AM?

Family matters—Fear, denial, diminishment, and impotence to justify doing nothing.

The literary community is re-examining her work, particularly the last story “Vandals”, published in her 1994 collection, Open Secrets. See Laura Miller’s piece, “The Writer and the Brute” in The Slate where she examines the story as possible atonement by AM.

Are there connections between the stories and the timeline of Andrea’s story? Are there clues as to why AM refused or could not help or protect her youngest daughter?

Our LIterary Heroines are not Saints

Sadly our literary heroines are not saints. We needily and blithely project our needs and wants onto them to be so.  There is a crushing sense of loss, betrayal and disappointment when they are found out to be fallible, flawed and messy like the rest of us.

I have deep compassion for Andrea Robin Skinner and her recovery journey after the immoral and unambiguous denial of her needs and safety by her family and society. I wish her, her siblings and her family all the best in their recovery journey.

And many thanks to my friends who forwarded me the various articles over the last few days.

A Letter to My Daughters

In 2013 after AM was awarded the Nobel Prize, I wrote a short piece about unexpected moral frailty. I’m sharing it below. Of course, it would have been different, if I knew then what I know now!

A-Letter-to-My-Daughters-Google-DocsDownload

Storm Chips

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In this short Life that only lasts an hour, How much – how little – is within our power. Emily Dickinson 1873

I hope that you are all well and coping. I invite you to continue rolling up your sleeves, removing your watch and jewellery then using soap and running water for twenty seconds. 

COVID-19 and TESTING

We are living in a more dangerous world. I am compulsively monitoring the Johns Hopkins University COVID world map and watching the expanding red circles obliterating country after country.

I’m in love with Dr. Bonnie Henry, the BC Provincial Health Officer and her calming, empathetic and scientifically grounded advice. Sure we’d all like to be tested but until capacity increases, we can’t. Take the COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool and make your decision with guidance from health care providers.

Remember, a negative test means you can still get the virus and you need to be as vigilant in your precautions as before the testing. We are not sure yet whether a positive test means that you have long-term immunity to this virus. Until testing capacity increases, let’s save testing for people who are high-risk or in the front lines, the people who need to be isolated from immunocompromised patients. Consider treating everyone outside your home as tho’ they have the potential to infect you. 

For a great read, try the article in the Walrus, The Anatomy of an Epidemic by Kevin Patterson, author, ( Consumption and others ) and an ICU doctor who works in Nanaimo and lives on Salt Spring Island.  

I’m trying to ration my COVID reading tho’ I seem to be waking up at 3:00 am and scanning articles. Last night, a Critical Care Society’s Guidelines for ICU care of COVID patients. 

 And here is this interesting animation showing how the virus spread developed by a group including the genius Lauren Gardner from Johns Hopkins who engineered the COVID map.

Importantly, Social Distancing and Self-Quarantine recommendations are the minimum things that we should be doing. Fortunately, regulatory bodies have made it harder to make impulsive and poor choices by closing coffee shops, restaurants, recreational centres, bars and borders. We have cancelled book clubs, dinners, lunches, tennis games and music lessons. One writing group is meeting on Zoom which is very useful.

Life in Comox

What seemed OK two weeks ago–a doubles tennis game, Sunday afternoon Sushi in a half-filled restaurant or picking up a few luxury items at the local food store–now seem reckless. These actions are inconsiderate of the essential service workers in the stores; inconsiderate of the healthcare professionals who will have to manage any resulting infections.

Which brings me to Storm Chips – Potato chips purchased by Canadian Maritimers in preparations for a winter storm. Well, I think you can have COVID chips too. We have laid some in  – not hoarding, just a few bags. We are discussing what the criteria will be for busting them open. Perhaps similar to our Hawkin’s Cheezies rule of one bag a month? 

Store owners are making changes to protect us and their staff. Some local stores have implemented a “seniors hour” with a limited number of customers in the store. The pet food store is home delivering phone-ordered supplies to minimize customer-staff interactions. I’m ordering two giant bags of cat food tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we go shopping at slow times–usually just before the store closes or during suppertime. We try to shop for a few days and only for essential items. It feels dangerous touching stuff that other people have handled. Is my mail dangerous? 

I’m reading short stories because it’s all my brain can take–intense, transporting and focused–collections by Comox Valley writer Traci Skuce, Rebecca Lee and Mary Gaitskill.

I’ve donated some money to the local food bank and am hoping this retired anesthesiologist’s skills will not be needed in this community.   

Yes, I’m thinking a lot about how this pandemic underscores global inequality–how we use resources and access to health care. I’m wondering how many of the equalizing and sensible changes we are seeing will get carried forward after the pandemic?

Oh well, that is quite the rant! Good luck to you all and please be considerate of each other.

Back to cleaning out the cutlery drawer and other useful home improvements.