Gail Anderson-Dargatz — A Rhinestone Button

Virago 2004 Paperback, 312pp. Job Sanstrum sees sound in colour; the hum of the vacuum cleaner creates a soothing glass egg in his hands, the resonant ring of a wet finger run around a wine glass generates hues of merging pastel colours like the shifting gloss of northern lights that grace the sky of his home town Godsfinger, Alberta.This is a community of curious characters, and a town where crop circles occur, birds drop out of the sky, and a duck waddles around in a nappy. Still, Job is an outsider, and when his bullying pastor brother, Jacob, returns with his wife and troubled son to claim the family farmhouse, Job is forced out of his home into further solitude.In the diner Liv serves Job an extra large slice of blueberry pie, her bangles jingling, while Christal stands in stillettos flipping burgers; Dithy squirts him with her water gun and instructs him to get out more. When his ability to see sound begins to fade and his one comfort is lost, Job realises he must look beyond himself and his solitary existence to find happiness and acceptance. Advance copy. (ISBN: 9781860498787). Good.