Book Review: Pitouie by Derek Winkler

Pitouie
Derek Winkler
(The Workhorsery)
ISBN: 978-0-9812612-2-5

Though there’s not a single punk character in Derek Winkler’s Pitouie, there is a certain argument that could be made about it being a punk book at heart – not in terms of its overt attitude, but its moral core. It is a novel which subtly addresses justice and responsibility while making you stop to give serious consideration to them.

At work in Pitouie are two mysteries, and it’s hard to give you a description of what the novel is about without giving too much of the story away, but I’ll do my best. Otis Wilson, a writer/editor at Waste Insider Magazine, ends up on a trip to the titular South Seas island whose leader has just unveiled his plan to encourage industrial disposal companies to dump their barrels of toxic sludge into a dormant but still active volcano at the centre of the island. Otis intends to write a human interest story on how this will affect the indigenous population.

Meanwhile, 35 years previously, a man named Lars Varick, employed to watch a radar screen at a tiny Distant Early Warning Line Station above the Arctic Circle is uncovering a mystery of his own regarding his immediate supervisor and an Inuit village. How the two stories are connected drives the narrative, and while the narrative is certainly compelling (I happily read Pitouie in a day), it is the book’s underlying morality I find particularly interesting.

Its moral and ethical stance is also a difficult topic to get into without giving anything away, but I’ve come up with a high-concept pitch for it which may give you a sense of its general tone and philosophy:

Pitouie is a literary mashup of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and the TV series Leverage.

Coming from a uniquely Canadian (yet simultaneously global) perspective, it has plenty of things to say in regard to pollution, the environment and man’s overall place in the world—concerns which aren’t limited to punks, but which punks often care about. Also, one of defining characteristics of punks as individuals and a movement is their unswerving sense that what’s wrong is wrong, and what’s right must be fought for tooth and nail (often by means that outsiders might ethically disagree with). This point is made very strongly in both of Pitouie’s stories, as is its constant return to justice and responsibility.

Punks are not in favour of law. The law represents and protects a system and society that they feel inherently subjugates and oppresses the weak. Justice, however, is a principal concern because by its nature it’s exempt from wealth, power and greed and should be meted out with equal fairness across the entire class spectrum. The fact it’s not is cause for punks to be pissed off and they often hold themselves responsible to go out and make a difference, because if they don’t, who will? Otis and Lars each struggle with injustice on multiple levels and their responsibilities to themselves, the people around them and to the planet. Their decisions, when made, are not made lightly.

But concentrating on the moral aspects of Pitouie makes the book sound like it’s dour and depressing and it’s not. Winkler is an engaging storyteller and this novel (his first) is an effortless read. There are touches of Douglas Adams in some of the lighter descriptions, and both plotlines are engrossing and intriguing. In point of fact, Winkler makes the two mysteries matter and even after the reveal (or maybe especially after), the book keeps you riveted with an entire cast of characters not remotely what they seem. Even when I was positive I knew where things were headed, I was only ever half right and sometimes not even that.

So, while Pitouie isn’t a punk book in any literal sense, it is on a metaphorical level as well as in the context that through its expertly-crafted prose you’ll likely be nonchalantly and enjoyably forced you revisit your own beliefs. (Reviewed by Chris Eng)