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Back in Blackby Janet Smith For a moment everything was still. You cocked the gun. The boy stood horror-frozen, staring. Maisie quivered in the farthest corner of the barn, nestled in some hay. She stared at you with darkened eyes. Kitsilano author Dennis Bolen says his hands were shaking when he bashed out those words on the computer. The opening scene of his new book by Random House is a bone-chilling account of a violent act against a favorite dog, and the betrayal of a father against his only son.
"The dog scene was a real turning point for me," says Bolen, visibly agitated just remembering it. "I had written about violent stuff before...but I was shocked that I could come up with that scene."
An upbeat contrast to the characters in his books, Bolen says his writing keeps pulling him into the dark side of human nature, forcing him to "stand in Hell." His last book, Stupid Crimes, which met rave reviews and is currently being optioned by Alliance for a television series, looked at street crime and included a harrowing scene of sexual assault. Stand in Hell, fresh on bookstore shelves, follows the character Robin Wallenco - a troubled, alcoholic man who takes to the road to research the shady secrets of his grandfather's actions during World War II. Writing isn't the only career that brings Bolen into the "dark side." He's spent the past 16 years working as a parole officer in Vancouver, and he admits his experiences counselling criminals has influenced his writing. "I'm not violent, I'm not nasty, but maybe that's my way of dealing with all the low-level traumatic stress and pressure you've got to deal with as a parole officer on the streets of Vancouver," says Bolen, flashing his ever-present pager. "Being a parole officer is an insanely difficult job. You're weighing the bureaucratic paper load, performing the social work role, trying to protect society, trying to please the parole board, trying to keep the bureaucrats happy..." Bolen, who splits his time writing between his Kitsilano home and his office at Anvil Press (the publishing company he co-owns), repeatedly sees the cyclical effect of violence in his work with parolees. Like the boy at the beginning of Stand in Hell, the parolees often tell about abuses they experienced or witnessed, as a child. It's a theme that recurs throughout Bolen's writing. "My basic thesis, and it's not rocket science, is if you experience violence as a child, then violence will re-enter your life in some way," he says. "Stand in Hell, thankfully, is not a Stupid Crimes - it's not about the criminal justice system. But I wanted to write about violence in our daily lives, the history of violence and how it affects our daily lives." Bolen has been writing since his undergrad years at University of Victoria in the '70s, and he took a Master's degree in creative writing at UBC in the late '80s. His black humour and ability to tap into the murky, unsavory human impulses have hit a chord with readers and critics alike. Toronto may hold greener pastures for Canada's rising literary stars, but Bolen is firmly rooted in Vancouver. "There's more of a writing scene here than ever before," says Bolen, who has formed a network of writers through his sub-TERRAIN magazine and The Vancouver Review. ©Canadian Press |
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