A Likely Story: The Writing Life gives the reader a glimpse, not only into the life of Robert Kroetsch, but into his mind as well. Told using a combination of poetry and prose, A Likely Story is not a traditional narrative, but it still offers much to the reader, and the writer, that is insightful, entertaining and innovative.
Kroetsch traces his connection to the writering life back to a time when he was too small to see into the holy water font at the Wanda church of his childhood. He focuses on this incident as the moment when he first connected the concept of “hand” and “manifesto.” He was apparently having some very writerly thoughts when he even then.
At the age of seventeen, his Grade 12 teacher tells him, “You’re always writing. Why don’t you become a writer?” And Kroetsch claims he hasn’t doubted his decision since.
This is uncommon in the world of the usually self-doubting writer. Most writers go through many stages of personal loathing and self-disparagement. Kroetsch differs from the average writer in this way. He knew what he wanted at a young age, and he never strayed from accomplishing his desire.
Postmodernism
As a writer and poet, Kroetsch is not afraid to follow his own ideas, and he appears confident in his chosen form. Linda Hutchinson is quoted as identifying Kroetsch as “Mr. Canadian Postmodern.” Kroetsch’s writings are often fragmented and “open ended,” and he continues to push. With this approach, Kroetsch has not only followed his own style, he has cleared the way for other Canadian writers to follow.
In A Likely Story, Kroetsch discards the traditional narrative for a scrapbook approach. In A Likely Story, he blends poetry and prose with anecdote and analysis. At first his book appears haphazard, but upon further reading there is a cohesion to his work that tells a greater truth through its many disparate parts. Kroetsch is confident in the style and the form he uses to tell his story.
Scrapbooking His Life
Kroetsch says, “A scrapbook is an important literary act.” It is a story. Kroetsch constructs his memories of the writing life in this way.
Kroetsch takes the bits and pieces, the headlines and news stories of his life and arranges them such that they become his story. Form is vital to the telling of this story. In fact he writes about his ideas on form at length. “The idea of scrap implies a larger whole, an organized universe, an explanatory mythology, from which the scrap was taken or has fallen away.” This is at the heart of his decision to use this form to tell his story. The scraps he chooses to share with his audience imply more than they say. This is a lesson for the reader and the writer.
In A Likely Story, Kroetsch presents the writing life as one of continual exploration and questioning. Even in the writing itself he is questing, searching. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he confesses. It is as though he is engaging the reader, asking the reader’s permission to question. It is as though he wants to try a story on for size and discard what doesn’t fit. And he seems to want to give his audience this same freedom.
A Style All His Own
Kroetsch’s style is one of openness and candor. As an adult he still approaches life with that same innocent astonishment he displayed as a boy when he discovered the frozen holy water. It is this wide-eyed innocence that comes forth as part of his personality, his persona, and ultimately his writing. Kroetsch is charming in his honesty but this unusual openness also allows him to develop a rapport with the reader. A rapport that gives the reader the ability to also question and be astonished. What could be more child-like and wonderfully silly than his ending:
Tickle tickle little tum.
How I wonder where you bum.
So there.
Robert Kroetsch’s memoir gives the reader and the writer much to think about. Its form may be challenging, but it is also engaging. And with his long career as a writer, Kroetsch is full of captivating anecdotes and compelling insight into the writing life.
Works Cited:
Kroetsch, Robert. A Likely Story: The Writing Life. Red Deer Press. 1995.
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