First Fiction Fridays: Provider’s Son by Lee Stringer
Using his own personal experience, Stringer has created a novel that provides an eye-opening look at life working on the oil sands of Alberta.
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What:Provider’s Son (Creative Book Publishing, 2013)Who:Lee Stringer grew up in the outport village of Little Hearts Ease, in Newfoundland’s Trinity Bay, but has been living in the nearby town of Clarenville most of his adult life. Stringer is a welder who has worked on different large-scale projects from the Alberta oil sands to Labrador Iron Ore sites, and like thousands of other Newfoundlanders, commuted by plane for multiple week shiftwork. He has previously published a collection of short stories but Provider’s Son is his debut novel.Why you need to read this now:Using his own personal experience, Stringer has created a novel that provides an eye-opening look at life working on the oil sands of Alberta.Levi Conley, a middle-aged Newfoundlander, has spent his life making a hard living off the water. Fishing defines who he is. But at the beginning of Provider’s Son, Levi’s life is falling apart. First his brothers betray him, cutting him out of the family fishing business, then he gets his credit card bill in the mail, and finally his wife leaves him for a man she met on the internet. With no other options in his home province, Levi does what many of his fellow Newfoundlanders do: he heads west.Finding a job on the same project as his daughter, Levi begins work as an apprentice welder. The work is well-paid, as promised, but it is also hazardous. It is also a very different way of life that Levi struggles with. As an outlet for his anxiety he turns to a pastime that has calmed him in the past, woodworking, and one that won’t get him fired, unlike his drinking.When he starts collaborating on a woodworking project with his daughter’s boyfriend, a young Aboriginal man, Levi’s life becomes more complicated than ever.Stringer has created a complicated character that is not always likeable but is dealing with some common struggles that readers can relate to. As Levi navigates these obstacles and tries to build a new life, one cannot help but feel empathy for him and many of those he encounters.
