Downhill Chance (49 page)

In the third and final part, we meet Hannah, Clair and Luke’s daughter, and learn what has become of Missy. Newfoundland has joined Confederation, and there is talk of a new school in The Baison and roads to join the small outports. There is also talk of the war, Luke’s dead brother, Joey, and Clair’s father.

As in
Kit’s Law,
the characters in
Downhill Chance
face a host of global issues at tender ages. Domestic violence, alcoholism, mental breakdown, the careless use of guns, and outright war lead to lifelong struggles for innocence and courage. But as Job, Clair, Luke, and Missy discover, the living can no more turn back time than the dead. In the end, we must all face the truth to find redemption.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DONNA MORRISSEY

Q:
Your novels tend to be set in very small communities rather than larger cities. Why? What attracts you to these remote communities as settings?

I write what I know. It feels as though I’ve started with my beginning years and am working my way up through. My latest novel actually has city scenes in it. Perhaps I’ll never go back to the outports again …

Q:
What was the starting point for this novel? When you sat down to write it, who emerged first and most clearly in your head? How did the novel unfold from there?

The novel started with the image of my grandfather smoking his pipe as he sat in a chair during late evening, staring out the window, his face reflecting back to me in the lamplight. It was a haunting face, and I believe it was from his days in World War I.

Q:
Is there a story behind the phrase “downhill chance”? Where did it come from? Was it your original title for the novel?

The phrase came from my father … it was an expression that they used whilst coaxing horses uphill, dragging logs through deep snow. At the top of the hill they would then catch their breath going down so’s to gain strength for the next hill.

Q:
Downhill Chance
is filled with premonitions, superstitions, and fantasies. Why do you think the characters put so much faith in these things?

I don’t know that they put faith in those things. They’re simply things one does without thinking. Who puts faith in fantasies???

Q:
There is a great deal of change happening in this novel— Newfoundland is entering Confederation, the war is ending, roads are being built—yet the politics take a back seat to the narrative and to character development. Is this reflective of reality? How do the politics of Canada affect these small outports?

I don’t concern myself with major political scenes while writing … unless, of course, it is needed for a character.
Downhill Chance
wasn’t about the political scene as much as it was about the characters finding their way through deeply emotional situations. I drew what I needed from the political situation so’s to move my story forward. The rest is for the history books to tell.

Q:
This novel is told almost entirely through dialogue. Is this a result of your background in screenwriting? Do you approach the two tasks differently?

Probably a result of my naïveté in writing. In my last two novels I’ve not been so restricted to dialogue. Although, I confess, it’s a struggle to stay away from dialogue … I hear it so clearly and could write pages and pages of pure dialogue … but I understand it’s trying for the reader, and so I’ve learned to mix in more narrative.

Q:
Both Kit and Clair find men who love them, deeply and truly, despite sometimes horrific circumstances. Can love really conquer all?

No. Love can conquer very little, unless there are two exceptionally smart people in the ring. Sorry, you’ve caught me in a downturn in the love dance …

Q:
You’ve said that we have to look back on our lives to fully live them, that “a life lived only once is a life unlived.” What have you discovered from reliving your life?

Everything that I’ve written in my books. The whole experience of writing has been to examine those things I’ve either lived through or witnessed. It always makes sense in hindsight … providing we commit time to understanding the mitigating circumstances surrounding our decisions, our mistakes, our triumphs. Life’s hard. And beautiful. I thrive on trying to understand why I am the way I am, the psychic process, the spiritual, the social. We are, no doubt, complex. The more I go back, the more I discover about myself. It’s hugely rich.

Q:
Would Missy and Clair have found their way back to each other without Hannah? What role do our children play in helping us reconcile the past?

Life presents us with many opportunities to learn ourselves. Whether it’s a child or a dog or a near miss in a car … the challenge is for us to take advantage of those opportunities and search deeper within ourselves and each other for learning, for understanding.