By Lori Hahnel
The Primitives
by Darlene Barry Quaife
Friesen Press (2024)
The Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939 has inspired the work of a great many writers and artists, including Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. In a time when we face the reemergence of fascism, the arrival of Southern Alberta author and artist Darlene Barry Quaife’s new novel, The Primitives, is timely indeed.
Set during the early part of the Spanish Civil War, Canadian archaeologist Dr. Grace ‘Shale’ Clifden, working on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, and the team of fellow Canadians she recruited in a London pub are in Spain to document the cave paintings of Cantabria. It’s not just any team Dr. Clifden has gathered;. It consists of the poet Dorothy Livesay, the poet P.K. Page, and Sheila Doherty (later Watson, author of the seminal modernist novel The Double Hook). As the novel begins, the team finds themselves kidnapped by a fascist commander who demands to know what they’re doing in Spain and accuses them of spying. An unexpected ally convinces the commander to allow the women to finish their work, with him as chaperone.
The Primitives is both a tautly written historical adventure story and a meditation on the nature of art. The author’s spare style and thoughtful word choice gives us many vivid scenes:
Winter winds gust off the Sierra de Guadarrama as Dorothy and Sheila are helped into the back of a troop truck. The only protection from the penetrating cold is a thin canvas tarp and huddled bodies. The two women had said their goodbyes with hugs and tears.
In contrast, deep in the caves of Galicia, the group is sequestered from the world. Away from their oppressors, they are free to discuss the origins of art in the depths of the human psyche.
Quaife’s research is impressive and well-done. The wealth of period detail here will appeal to history lovers and CanLit fans alike:
Another evening lecture at Canada House, the speaker this time is Northrop Frye, a young Canadian attending the University of Oxford. The Romantic English poet, William Blake, is obviously his passion. Frye introduces his audience to Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience by suggesting that the poems are of the times, the current times, prophetic in the face of Nazism.
Also of note is the book’s cover: Quaife’s “Cave Art”, one of her own paintings. All in all, this is a one-of-a-kind novel that will appeal to readers seeking substance in their fiction. Quaife’s passion for art and history make The Primitives a fascinating book.
Lori Hahnel, an art school dropout, is the author of three novels and two short story collections, including Vermin, which won the Alberta Literary Award for Short Story Collection in 2022. She is currently at work on a novel based on the life of Clara Schumann.