Restlessness

by Aritha van Herk

A restless, wandering woman, whose life and work is to travel, determines that the only way she can appease her terrible homesickness is to occupy the still center of death. Unable to commit suicide, she hires a professional killer and contracts him to kill her, by her choice and on her terms. In an effort to dissuade her from death, her killer elicits from her stories about her travels. In this reversal of Sheherazade, who saves her life through a continuous story, Restlessness becomes a story about how to avoid story, a travel book about how to evade travel, a manual for how to stay put.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Mental Illness

193 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Aritha van Herk is a Canadian writer, critic, editor, and university professor.

Her parents and elder siblings immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands before she was born. She grew up in a bilingual home, speaking English and Dutch. In 1974, she married Robert Jay Sharp, who is a geologist. Van Herk studied Canadian literature and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, graduating with a B.A. Honours in 1976, and an M.A. in 1978. Since 1983, Aritha van Herk has been teaching at the University of Calgary. She teaches Creative Writing, Canadian Literature, and Contemporary Narrative.

Reviews

[knig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I get this woman: her name is Dorcas. Dorcas, for crying out loud. Such an ignominious name, if names are meant to personify some oulipedean dimension of the soul. Dorcas has everything going for her: and, its not enough. Its not that she’s troubled about the meaning of life: she’s figured out that there isn’t any, apart from what we make of it. Its not that she can’t make something out of it: she’s well off, travels like a fiend, has an enigmatic ‘loved one’, attends gallery night openings, stocks up on art books, isn’t too proud to have a little pedestrian fun in Vegas, and when she sees a man she likes, well...lets put it this way, she don’t wait around plucking petals off the ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ daisy head. This woman goes for it. She’s got a finger in every pie: her pursuits are many. The problem is, her interests are not. In fact, behind the facade of frenetic activity, she’s lost all interest. And rather than carry on, without colour, taste, smell, sight or emotion, she chooses to commit suicide.

In a poignant juxtapositional scene, Dorcas is dining in a restaurant and gazes out into the window of a woman across the street. This nameless woman is buzzing: attending to a cotillion of little inconsequential things, and each one ‘matters’: life in full flow, a gourmet acquisition of detail in carefully alternating patterns of arranged and accidental. Dorcas shares this mis en scene, but for her there is just no meaning. She is a failed participant, isolated, frankly finished. With everything. There is no cause, no rhyme, no reason: she wants to love life, but can’t. Picara. What to do, when you’re defeated by details and the ‘unreadable compilation of life’ congeals like a mounting pressure of blue?

[Samantha Adkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has a very interesting premise, which is the relationship between a woman and the man she has hired to kill her. I loved the setting and found the descriptions of Calgary both hilarious and bang on. I would categorize this book as literary fiction, which is nice once in a while; however, I would usually choose a story with more action and less internal monologue.

A favorite quotation is "It's why the east won't take us seriously, because we dress up in cowboy clothes every Friday, like kids who've been given a set of cap guns." p. 79

[Colby Clair Stolson]

Honestly, I think there's a giant weakness in the middle: Derrick acts as a sounding board to all of the narrator's complex, tho artful and insightful, thots. He asks simple questions after her intricate and precise commentary, and I find his responses inadequate, maybe even disinterested.

However, the book enacts its own restlessness, and I found myself, at parts, impatient, yes restless, with the (lack of) plot. So I find the novel (if one can call it that) successful, but would rather Derrick be a fullness of his own, rather than a response-and-reply.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read two other books by Van Herk and enjoyed the restless woman wanderer characters she crafts. This book also features another such person, but the destination and conclusion is just a little more morbid. I put off reading this book because of the premise (a woman who hires her own killer), but it ended up being more of a calm, meditative read.

[Tracee · Rating 3 out of 5]

After all that....
Nothing was accomplished. Nothing was sorted. Nothing was resolved.
The writing and story weren't horrible so I stuck with it but there was no follow-through, no resolution so I'm left with wondering "why did I bother"...... Why didn't the author bother?

[Gail Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, it was fun to read a book set in your hometown. It was great to take a walk with the characters down familiar sites and sounds. It was informative and beautifully written.
But, sorry to offend, what the h*ll?
I did not "get" this book, borrow it from the library if you insist.

[Marie F · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars

This is definitely a book that I have many mixed feelings about... It is at once a loose and freeform character study, a toyingly descriptive account of certain areas of Calgary, and a bizarre long-winded (for so few pages) but reflective interaction between the two main characters as the suicidal woman tells what parts of her life story she is comfortable sharing in great detail. It just felt so meandering and seeking, and oddly she'd seemingly overshare vulnerable details while closely guarding her privacy on less noteworthy seeming details making it quite confusing for me personally as a reader (but I struggle socially so maybe this makes more natural sense to some people). I mostly liked it but it's strange enough I probably wouldn't want to read anything similar (nor would I ever know who to recommend it to because it feels like such a one-off).

[Pavlina · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an extraordinary protagonist here! The very first line 👁️‍🗨️"I am alone in a room with the man who has agreed to kill me," immediately creates an atmosphere of her living with death constantly on her shoulder. She's not just afraid; death becomes a way to make sense of her choices and reclaim control over her life. This isn't a story about giving up - it's about finding freedom in the most unlikely places.

👁️‍🗨️"Is death a happy ending?"

[Rib · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this for an English class but I'm not even gonna lie to you I'd probably have enjoyed this without the critical thinking aspect. That being said, I appreciated being able to critically examine it and break down the vague ending. I think it was a fantastically written novel and I enjoyed every second I was reading it — especially the setting, it's so close to me I was able to imagine every little detail and it makes the text way more immersive.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having difficulty sleeping at night? If the doctor won’t prescribe sleeping pills, I’d recommend reading this before bed. It will knock you right out. Dull, dull, dull.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a weird book also who the hell names a character Dorcas

[Yasmeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one for the first half-- mainly because I was actively not enjoying the prose on an aesthetic level and I just... wasn't really feeling the whole premise. But eventually it kind of sucked me in. It seemed to simultaneously get prettier/more effectively written and more unsettling as the book went on. And overall I think there's something pretty special about it. Some kind of feeling that's captured.

This is all ridiculously vague but I think what I can't articulate is probably very central to how I felt about it. This is the best I can do right now: I highly doubt that it's going to stick around my head in a particularly significant way but I do feel like some scenes or lines or feelings etc., have lodged themselves into my brain as some weirdly shaped grey shadows.

[Gord Higginson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to write this novel! In fact I came up with almost the same conceit or basic plot as Van Herk's a year ago, only to discover (eventually) that van Herk had already done it (and much better, I might add). Read the book I was going to write but Van Herk beat me to the punch! Good thing I hadn't wasted much time on my version! Suspenseful and fascinating.

[Beckie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don't think i really liked this book, but it was very interesting. i'm always interested in books about what makes life worth living and what obligation people have to stay alive.