The Fiddler Is a Good Woman

December 18, 2017
Canadian musician and novelist Berner opens his entertaining but not entirely successful second novel with the premise that his publisher has asked him to write a biography of a missing violin player, DD. Characters from Berner’s first novel, Festival Man, reappear as interview subjects, giving the narrative an oral history–meets–Waiting for Godot vibe. Each chapter is a snippet of an interview conducted in Berner’s search for DD, as former lovers, bandmates, managers, fans, and other hangers-on remember the gifted fiddler. The book unfolds like a Scheherazade tale, with stories within stories that become less about DD and more about touring indie musicians in Canada, including drug-fueled parties, bad gigs, and trails of broken hearts and minds. Although the lack of DD’s perspective (even in flashbacks or quotes from the past) may be an intentional device to reflect loss, it still leaves a hole in the narrative, and the stories circling around her don’t completely compensate for it. DD is Indigenous, but the picture of her that emerges is more of an Indian maiden/Native badass stereotype—endlessly wise, highly talented, and loved by all—than a real person. Still, Berner does a terrific job of keeping the other voices fresh, creating a darkly comic look behind the scenes of Canada’s roots music scene, which he knows so well.