Off-beat in a wilderness

Press, 17 December 1988, Page 24

Off-beat in a wilderness

Bad Guys. By Elizabeth Arthur. Pan, 1988. 262 pp. $15.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Alan Conway) After reading this book the adjectives which spring most quickly to mind are “off-beat” and “wryly humorous.” Elizabeth Arthur has spent a great deal of time in wildernessliving, in such places as Wyoming, British Columbia and Nepal, and she has drawn upon these experiences. Chenega is an island work-camp for juvenile delinquents in the Gulf of Alaska where the counsellors are idealistic but inept and the delinquents are bewildered, unrepentant and equally inept. The camp has a “no swearing” rule on pain of multiple push-ups. As a result, some of the boys delight in poring over a dictionary to find words like “pismire" and “shittim” which they can use with impunity. A former juvenile delinquent, Spike, arrives by boat with a vague idea of

taking vengeance on a sadistic, perhaps imaginary, counsellor called Burke who in Spike’s muddled mind had ill-treated him. Accompanying Spike is Wesley, a dim-witted drifter travelling around at the dictates of the “World Spirit” with his anorexic daughter, Amolia. Some of the boys attempt to flee from the island by boat but fail abysmally. Spike brings about a final bungled tragedy when Amolia is accidentally shot and killed. Spike in turn dies from being hit over the head with a can of tomato juice by Wesley. The author writes well and draws her main characters with firm strokes. Seldom can so many ineffectual yet pathetically attractive people have been brought together on such a small canvas. This book will appeal to those who enjoy an unusual story which only just clings to the margins of reality and credibility.