An Unerring Eye for the Ordinary

A certain kind of Canadian novel has become so common it is now a cliché, and is made fun of and complained about by critics and novelists, even if still widely enjoyed by reading groups and prize-giving committees. It usually begins with a tragic or unexpected death, follows a trail of grief and redemptive healing, and constantly refers to the past, either the protagonist’s own early years or that of their parents or grandparents. Memory and loss. Such a novel is The Apple House, Gillian Campbell’s debut.

It begins with a flashback to the protagonist’s childhood, and thereafter alternates back and forth between her coping with her husband’s sudden death in a car accident and her memories of growing up in a small village on the West Island of Montreal. These flashbacks to the past, however, are written in the present tense, while the main story, which takes place in the fictional “now,” is presented in the traditional past tense. This inversion makes little...