The Complaints Department — Susan Haley

Gaspereau Press is pleased to present this redesigned edition of Susan Haley's fifth novel, The Complaints Department, first published in 2000. The novel takes place in the village of Prohibition Creek, a fictional Dene community in the Northwest Territories. We first encounter Robert Woodcutter on the steps of the local Band hall, having just lost to his brother Danny in the election for chief. When Danny begins to outline his plans for improving local affairs, Robert points out a hole in his list of committees. And so the local complaints department is born, with Robert Woodcutter as its sole administrator and attorney.

The novel centres on the Woodcutter family and on the relationship that develops between Robert and Rebecca McCrae, whose allegiances gradually shift, from a defense of her position in Danny's band office, to Robert's way of doing things. Like many others in the novel, Robert and Rebecca's relationship hinges on the town's transitional status, as the last of the old ways are steadfastly maintained alongside a newer, non-traditional approach.

Issues of governance and authority lurk around every corner in Prohibition Creek. When Robert's wife tells him to leave, he and his friend Haga (the town fool) reclaim an abandoned fish plant. Before long they are deep in the paper chase required just to build an outhouse. Haley delights in these kinds of absurdities, capturing their inanity, and detailing the labyrinth of shortcuts and forgeries that have long characterized the attempts of national bureaucracy to replace local systems.

The Complaints Department features an unruly crew of family and local curiosities, including Robert's mother Ama and her boyfriend Elvis, Rebecca's uncle Herod, Danny's dissatisfied wife Roseanne, and Robert's own wife, the sullen but capable Mary Ann. Haley demonstrates a genuine understanding of life in Canada's northern populations, and an appreciation for the range of archetypes recognizable in all communities of certain size.

Prohibition Creek is a place where magic, dreams, visions and storytelling permeate everyday life, but where these forms of guidance are increasingly being driven under by a kind of power that operates from the top down. Ever evasive of authority, Robert instead relies on stories he once found in a little green book in the school library, a volume of knowledge he takes to calling “The Book of Dene.” Drawing strength from storytelling and from his occasional participation in the ways of life still maintained by his mother's generation, Robert works to rebuild the relationships upon which his place in Prohibition Creek depend.

This edition is a smyth-sewn paperback bound in a letterpress-printed cover. The text was typeset in Adobe Jenson by Andrew Steeves and printed offset on laid paper.