It’s not often that I review a contemporary novel, but for some reason this one kind of caught my fancy. It may not be historical (although, I suppose you could argue that anything written before the present is historical!), but it is definitely a story of the prairies. It is set in the recessionary maelstrom of the late 20-oughts.
Joe Beaudry has gone bust — spectacularly. Tucking his aged father in a nursing home, he and his wife, Laurie, are on the lam in a motorhome stolen from what was once his own Winnipeg RV lot.
Their destination is Fort McMurray, that shining beacon of cash that Joe hopes can somehow put them back on the road to financial salvation.
Out of gas money and stranded in a Walmart parking lot in Regina, they are each forced to confront some unwelcome truths about themselves, reality, and the things that are truly important.
Pushed to figure out what to do next, he simply takes off hitchhiking, leaving Laurie…
Waiting for Joe
The Prairie Fiddler 