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fool's bells - Lynnette D'anna

© Paula E. Kirman

fool's bells
Lynnette D'anna
Insomniac Press
176 pp.; trade paperback; $19.99
ISBN 1-895837-90-1

Incest is a particularly insidious form of abuse. Not only does it usually involve the exploitation of children, but often the victim is fooled into believing the perpetrator's actions are a form of love.

Winnipeg-based novelist Lynnette D'anna explores the reality of incest in fool's bells. The third and final book in a trilogy in which D'anna explores sexually abusive relationships, fool's bells is at once disturbing and engaging.

Intertwining the life stories of three women from very different backgrounds, each woman struggles with abuse in very different ways. One woman, Naomi, is a housewife who continues her incestuous relationship with her father, having grown up believing that this is a normal course of events between a father and daughter. Another, Baby, is a prostitute who alternates between feelings of love and loyalty versus revulsion at her mother for exploiting her for money as a pre-teen. The other protagonist is Sra, a young woman struggling with the suicide of her best friend, whom she knew was being molested by her father.

Although these women never meet in the story, they all have in common the slow crawl towards self-discovery and meaning in a world that contains such evil, at times seeming as though it is almost permissible despite the results it leaves in its wake. The story of Sra in particular not only is of self-discovery but coming of age also.

fool's bell's is as disturbing as it is unforgettable. D'anna's writing is definitely prose but with a lyrical feel about it. Drawing heavily from Tarot mysticism, much of the novel is almost surreal and really the only way to interchange between three very different characters.

The first two books in the trilogy are Sing Me No More (Press Gang, 1992) and RagTimeBone (New Star, 1993). Lynnette D'anna's poetry is published widely across the country in such periodicals as Zygote, Prairie Fire, and Poetry Canada.

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