FALLING

by Anne Simpson

(McClelland & Stewart,320 pages, $32.99 hardcover)

Award-winning novelist and poet Anne Simpson has set her new novel in Niagara Falls, a perfect setting for a novel about loss.

The casinos, tawdry souvenir shops and tourist attractions, stories of the crazy daredevils who hurled themselves over the falls, tour buses, honeymooners and suicides are all a contrast to the majestic beauty of the Falls.

It's a place where strange things happen. It's also a place I am familiar with as friends and I went on writing retreats at the Loretto Centre for years.

We were peaceful in "the nunnery" as I called it, while a short distance away tour buses pulled up at luxurious hotels. It's also a place where people live. Olde Ontario, I always think. United Empire Loyalists. Humble cottages sit beside larger places.

Ingrid grew up there, but later moved to the Maritimes. When she returns to Niagara Falls with her son Damian, she is still mourning the tragic death of her daughter, Lisa, who drowned a year earlier in a few inches of water while Damian slept on the beach.

Mother and son plan to scatter Lisa's ashes at Niagara Falls. It's a time of sadness heightened by Ingrid's difficult relationship with her brother Roger.

Roger is blind and has gone over the Falls twice in a barrel. He lives with his son, Elvis, who is somewhat of an idiot savant.

Damian, a former art school student, is filled with guilt over his sister's death.

He's a sensitive young man who soon meets Jasmine, a beautiful young woman who works at Lundy's Lane Historical Museum. Jasmine (formerly Sandra from out west) has left a sad childhood behind. She wants to go to New York City. The two soon become lovers.

Unfortunately, Ingrid has disagreements with her brother and the past haunts Jasmine.

Poor Damian, caught between his new love and the sorrow about his sister, disappears. Has he thrown himself over the Falls? Or not?

It's summer, and hot, and noisy with tourists, and Ingrid is frantic. Simpson tells the stories of these people in a compelling way. She is a brilliant writer who not only understands people but has a feel for landscape.

Veronica Ross is a Kitchener writer.