W.D. Valgardson

Photo: Winnipeg International Writers' Festival

My favourite W.D. Valgardson short story is "A Matter of Balance." The plot is seen through the eyes of a flawed narrator, traumatized by the violent death of his wife and strongly motivated to protect his children.

Balance works on many levels in this short work. For no apparent reason, nasty bikers threaten Harold on an isolated mountainside in a park (I imagine it as Lighthouse Park, in West Vancouver.) The toughs have neither the skill nor the experience that Harold has. As they pursue him along the steep, slippery trail, they soon begin to lose their balance.

When they turn in panic and ask for his help, how should Harold make his crucial decision? He must weigh the possible consequences with care. If he saves them, they could once more become a threat when the balance of power shifts again.

But is Harold's own mind unbalanced? And where is the balance in a society that produces such people, such dilemmas? After considering his options, Harold makes a decision. Will the reader agree with his choice? The story raises a lot of questions, and the plot, language and symbolism are beautifully handled.

Born in 1939 in an Icelandic Canadian village, W.D. Valgardson was interested in the effects of isolation. Many of his stories deal with this theme. Along with some excellent short stories, Valgardson wrote a novel. The Girl with the Botticelli Face (D & M 1993) takes place in Victoria, where the author was working as a Creative Writing professor at UVic. It was written in the early hours, said Valgardson, when it flowed out easily, day after day.

When he was profiled by John Burns in Quill and Quire in 1997, Valgardson had completed "Garbage Creek" and other children's stories. Like the novel mentioned above, Thor, another children's book, flowed into his mind easily and quickly.

His interest in writing for children, his own grand kids in particular, appears to have balanced the darker aspects of some of his earlier prose.