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Born on March 13, 1952 in Walkerton, Ontario, Marion K. Douglas grew up in the rural southwestern Ontario that informs the youths of the protagonists of her first two novels. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and History from the University of Guelph and a Master's degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Calgary. Most of her employment has been in the field of psychology, and it is in that capacity that she currently works for the Calgary Board of Education. Her two vocations are highly compatible; as Douglas herself states, "What motivated me to become a psychologist is what motivates me to be a writer, and the writerly chromosomes pre-date the psychology DNA. I'm pretty interested in the inner lives of people."
Douglas, who began writing fiction in 1984, has published stories in Grain, Prism, A Room of One's Own, The Capilano Review, The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories and the Journey Prize Anthology. Her first novel, The Doubtful Guests, published in 1993 by Orca, was commended by Books in Canada and the Vancouver Sun for its sensuous prose and subtle characterization. Bending at the Bow, published by Press Gang in 1995, won the Writers Guild of Alberta/Georges Bugnet Award and garnered praise from University of Toronto Quarterly and Lambda Book Report for its spirit, eccentricity, seamless plotting and challenges to myths about sexuality.
The Doubtful Guests, set in Hong Kong and Calgary in 1989 and small-town Ontario of the past, examines the multiple, complex and often humorous neuroses of Gayle and Richard, twins in their thirties. On one level, it is a sophisticated mystery revolving around the disappearance of the twins' father in their adolescence. It is also a work of psychological and sexual exploration with important social and political undertones. The book is striking in its deft use of alternating points of view, its evocative rendering of place and its compassionate, profound, and witty study of quintessentially Canadian characters. Douglas says of this last characteristic, " Many of my characters seem to be observing life as if the 'main event' were going on elsewhere, a situation I think they find both comforting and puzzling; they don't really know how to get there and maybe don't want to. Canadians, as a result of geography, are born with a kind of outsider status which is a privilege if you like being an observer ". Richard, for example, is obsessed with newspaper accounts of personal tragedy that allow him constant diversion from his purported goal of feeling comfortable in his own home.
Like the twins, Annie, the protagonist in Bending at the Bow, is coping with loss; the accidental death of her lover, Sylvie, precipitates her meandering search through her rural Ontario past and her 1990s Calgary present. Both geographies are peopled by an array of characters who both define their respective territories and reflect a global zeitgeist. Calgary's landscape is especially vividly limned; the Bow River alluded to in the title is banked by a motley crew of characters who -- with equal ineffectiveness -- embrace such 1990s trends as New Age religion, non-violent political activism, mood-altering prescription drugs and technological revenge. The powerful currents of satire that run through the serious plights of these characters are evidence of Douglas's philosophy that "there's too much earnestness out there. I think we should laugh more at our anxieties instead of getting into a rage." Evoking loss through humour is no easy feat, but Douglas accomplishes it swimmingly.
Douglas provides a sneak preview of Magic Eight Ball, slated for publication by Press Gang in 2000: "This is a novel about two kinds of pleasure -- the pleasure of aloneness and the pleasure of intimacy -- and the anxiety that their endless jostling seems to create." With a fourth novel already in the works, Marion Douglas is an accomplished writer, remarkable for her psychological and social insight.
The above profile was written by Ginny Ratsoy. Ginny Ratsoy teaches Canadian literature and co-ordinates the Canadian Studies program at the University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops. Visit our Contribution page to learn how you too can write and author profile for Northwest Passages.
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