Cabin Fever by Anik See
A Fiction Review by Mark Anthony Jarman
After many years of absence, our narrator, now living in the Netherlands, revisits her old family cabin to spend a winter in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Big Sky Country, a land of skinny poplars, bears, wolves, deer and elk, vast cattle ranches, vast views, and low populations. Very different than life in the Netherlands.
The cabin is isolated, but still standing; her parents, however, are gone, killed in a car crash when a semi drifts into the wrong lane. Themes of risk and hope are implied by the junkyard’s heaps of wrecked autos visible by the busy highway, and by the recent news of 9/11, evidence of accident and unpredictability, exits and entrances, mortality and connections.
Gerry is a neighbour from way back, an aged faller and a great character with witty dialogue. He works hard and looks out for her when she comes back. In the night, she hears strange noises and finds Gerry, over 80 years old, up fixing her old cabin roof in the dark. He said otherwise he’d forget. Later our narrator sits with Gerry in a vigil as he quietly dies.
A university friend, Max, lives in a nearby village, though he is Dutch. Max is trained in lovingly restoring ornate ancient books, hand-coloured folios, and marbled flyleaves from Istanbul.
In the foothills the narrator knows dying hamlets, log cabin bars, and legends of tough old trappers, like Jake “One Eyed Jack” Smith. Aiming at a moose, Jake’s rifle misfired, and the butt’s impact knocked out one of his eyeballs. He staunched the cavity with snow and had to watch ravens eat his eye left on the ground. This may sound a gruesome tall tale, but Cabin Fever is a lovely book, with meditative and elegiac prose, accompanied by black-and-white photos, reminiscent of John McPhee or WG Sebald, and I mean that in a pleasing way.
Exploring disparate urban and rural landscapes, Cabin Fever is a strange brew of the Canadian west and older European sensibilities, touching on Canada, The Netherlands and Venice, a sojourn finding light as observed lives open and close, knowing a sense of loss, but also finding solace and hope.
About the Author
Anik See is a Canadian documentary maker and writer living in The Netherlands. She is the author of A Fork in the Road, Saudade: The Possibilities of Place and postcard and other stories. Her writing has appeared in Brick, The Walrus, Prairie Fire, The Fiddlehead, Geist, grain, National Geographic, The National Post, and Toronto Life, and has been nominated for numerous awards. Her prize-winning documentaries can be heard on the BBC and CBC, among other broadcasters. She is the co-founder and publisher of Fish Gotta Swim Editions.
About the Reviewer
Mark Anthony Jarman’s Burn Man, his Selected Stories, was a 2024 Editors’ Choice with The New York Times. He edited Best Canadian Stories 2023 and is the author of Touch Anywhere to Begin, Czech Techno, Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, 19 Knives, and the travel book Ireland's Eye. Published in journals across Europe, Asia, and North America, he is a graduate of The Iowa Writers' Workshop, edited fiction for The Fiddlehead for 25 years, and now co-edits a new illustrated magazine, Camel.
Book Details
ISBN 978-0-9780054-9-8
Paperback
264 pages