My pic looks dark. But the original is dark, taken with one of those pocket-sized autofocus cameras that were common in the 1970s. I could have lightened the image with my smart phone, but it's important to know that the original camera, like the transistor radio that was also common to that era, is cheap, practical, barely sufficient. Nothing says the 1970s like the Kodak Pocket Instamatic.
We don't have to read too far into this book of remembrances told by co-author Janet Gallant to co-author Sharon Thesen (who transcribed them as poems) to know that the housing Gallant is pictured in front of is part of a Canadian Forces Base, and that the pop-up trailer behind her is symbolic of the army family's nomadic life. Gallant's family moved around a lot, only it wasn't to escape something but to better serve the country her father swore allegiance to.
I admire New Star for selecting a cover image as dark and as blurry as this one. For me, the light is a dusk light, a June night somewhere north of what I am used to. The long day before it could have seen Gallant involved in something where trophies are given out, after which she showered and changed into clothes she thought about wearing on the drive back to the base.
But if this day was such a big deal -- big enough to photograph -- why is Gallant not centred in its picture? Could it be that the photo was cropped to allow space for Eve Joseph's blurb, the book's cursive title and its co-authors? Or that whoever took this picture was more interested in the trailer? After reading The Wig-Maker you might have an idea as to which of these two options was in play. But you have to read it first. And you should read it if you are at all interested in the time, the place and the circumstances in which Janet Gallant came of age.
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