Middle-class families are haunted by their origins—or rather by the fear of falling back into them. Back into the labouring job, the hardscrabble farm, the shame of lower status. This is often not a conscious fear but flits atavistically in the background of domestic life, part of the generalized anxiety that expresses itself in the chafings of marriage and worries over the kids’…
John Bemrose
John Bemrose’s most recent novel is The Last Woman (McClelland and Stewart, 2009). He lives in Toronto.
Articles by
John Bemrose
When Neighbours Kill
How scapegoating and the killing instinct produced Canada’s most memorable murder March 2005
Our attitude to murder has always been complex and ambiguous. We largely disapprove, yet remain fascinated. Very few kill, yet from King Lear to the nightly news, we like to follow the trail of blood. And in certain circumstances, we continue to believe that killing will make us safe. Hence war, capital punishment and the machetes of the…