Throughout reading Hope in the Desperate Hour by David
Adams Richards I kept wondering. Richards
does a very good job illustrating desperation.
Several people are in deep trouble because of a bad business deal. Even worse, many of those who are in trouble
are culpable. It is not simply that a
good plan failed. This was a corrupt
deal that had its source in intentional ideas from many of the people now
desperate. I wondered where the hope was. The book begins desperate and ends
desperate. Hope is always a few days
away in the most literal of senses. The
activity – save for frequent flashbacks – takes place on the Thursday before
Good Friday.
This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.
In the Christian tradition,
eternal hope will be realized with Jesus’s resurrection on the following
Sunday, Easter. Resurrection, however, is
prefaced by death. Death is remembered
on Good Friday. Where is the hope in the
desperate hour? I closed the book with
desperation. Even the closing line –
from a letter written to Anna and Neil – “May God bless, have mercy on us all”
rang a bit hollow. The letter begins
with “I slept with whores,” and points out that everyone in the writer’s life,
save for the little wounded girl he adopted and her friends, are
“bastards.” This is no Christmas Carol like “God bless us everyone.”
The business deal is a planned
casino. Peter Bathurst is a Micmac
community leader who is the driving force of the deal. He spends the majority of the novel trying to
find enough money to repay his debts. If
he cannot, people will see that his mismanagement is why the casino will not be
built. Peter tried to do two things at
once. He wanted to be a political success
and he wanted to get rich doing so. Of
course, neither proved possible. Vicki
Shackle is also involved, though her freedom is not necessarily riding on the
pending collapse. Vicki was not simply
trying to get rich, though that would be a nice bonus. Instead, she wanted to make a name for
herself. Vicki tried to be noticed by
being the wife of a superstar hockey player but her husband was injured before
ever playing his first professional game.
She then tried to be noticed by being a successful writer and even got
some attention from the CBC, but that did not pan out. Vicki finally tried to be important to at
least one man – the lover she took without her husband’s knowledge – but he
treated her in much the same way she treated her husband. Louis Gatineau is the last big player. The least significant person in the
transaction of course has the most to lose.
Bathurst and his men manipulate Gatineau into committing arson which
turned into murder to try to cover up the bad deal. The desperation is obvious. Bathurst has the end of his political career
and some time in prison ahead of him; Vicki will lose what is left of her
reputation and finances; Gatineau had little to gain and will lose everything
by being branded and convicted a murderer.
There is depth to this novel
so the people who need hope so desperately are not always to blame for their
predicament. Garth Shackle was supposed
to be a superstar hockey player. He lost
his chance when, in a national team game, a dirty hit wrecked his back and his
chance at fame and fortune in the NHL. Vicki,
his girlfriend at the time is certain that he will leave her after he hits the
big time convinces him to marry her before the tournament that injured
him. She is less enamoured with the idea
of Garth when it becomes clear that he will suffer through the sorts of jobs
that regular people have. Garth has a
brother named Neil who is a relative success in his chosen field – academics –
but is slowly realizing such success does not have an obvious relation to the
rest of life. When he returns home to
visit, the incongruity between his professional life and his place among his
upbringing, family, and friends becomes obvious. Garth is desperate because he never had a
chance; Neil is desperate because he had a chance, succeeded, and it didn’t
really amount to what he expected.
The stories of the guilty and
the stories of the not quite so guilty actually demonstrate hope as I see it.
“The truth in everything is by faith, not by law,” Mary said.
(Peter) had never heard her speak like this before. He knew it wasn’t
faith in any one church she was speaking of, it was simply faith. She herself did not so much believe in any
one church as she believed that all the misery her people had suffered was for
some purpose. That it had to be.
The longer I kept thinking,
Where is this hope I’ve been promised, the more it was right in front of
me. The hope that is offered to us in
Easter is needed because of the lack of hope that permeates Jesus arrest, farcical
trial, and execution. If desperation did
not surround us, hope would not be needed.
Every time Richards points out that it is Thursday, he points out why
hope is needed. The Good Friday account
in the gospels is desperate. Frankly, if
the story ended there, Christianity and faith would be without hope. Hope is only necessary because of
desperation. We see the epitome of
desperation when Jesus says, “It is finished.”
Hope is offered later with the fulfilled promise of resurrection.
Each character is in their own
desperate hour, as Jesus was. This is
the success of the novel. Peter’s
political career ended in scandal; Vicki’s last chance has past; Louis’ freedom
is gone; Garth’s dreams have collapsed; Neil’s career is fruitless. Hope is in each of these horror stories
because none are as bleak as Good Friday.
Jesus took the worst of all punishments and died. Then he did something else. He returned to life again and showed creation
where hope is. Yes, obviously Jesus’
story is different than that of the characters that scramble before Good Friday
in this book. Christianity teaches that
Jesus held no culpability in his desperate end.
That’s why forgiveness is so important in my faith. Nonetheless, simply by planting the seed of
the coming Easter, Richards demonstrates that hope indeed is in the desperate
hour for each of his characters.
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