Tough, yet tender at the center
Webber's heroine struggles through range of issues related to her time and age
by VERNE CLEMENCE
Star Phoenix, May 27, 2000
Meet Miranda Tyler, a tough world-weary news producer at a big private TV station, in Edmonton. At 32 she has lived the feminist dream, rising far and fast in a competitive male-dominated field. On the job she takes no crap. She's cynical and demanding, but a fair boss respected for her coolness under fire.
Now meet Miranda Tyler the private person, a basket case who has just been dumped on her way to the altar. Turner, the dumper, is an immature musician with a cocaine habit who kept borrowing money from her and forgetting to show up for dates.
But she agreed to marry him and, suppressing nagging doubts, she embarks on a holiday trip with Turner at her side and a wedding dress in the trunk of her car. Two days later he ditches her in a souvenir shop on the top of Whistlers' Peak in Jasper.
Miranda, is the principal character in Defying Gravity, a new novel by Saskatoon writer and broadcaster Jennifer Wynne Webber. She's also, says Webber, not unlike many women whose lives reflect the confusion of the times.
"Miranda grew up in a world where little girls absorbed the messages, from television and elsewhere, about how they were supposed to behave, what girls did and what boys did. But she also bought into the idea that women could do or become whatever they wanted, that gender wasn't an obstacle. She made it in the work world, but she's still struggling with questions unique to this time and her age.
That struggle makes a compelling story that touches on a range of contemporary issues. Prominent among them, Webber said in a recent interview, is abuse of power within relationships. "I've known prototypes of Miranda in real life," she says. "All women who put up with abuse, both physical and emotional aren't meek or submissive. Many are strong leaders but somehow they've been turned into apologists for that strength."
Turner is just the latest for Miranda in a long line of unsuccessful forays into dating and romance. Anything but a traditionalist in one part of her life, she nonetheless seems to seek out traditional relationships. But to make them work she has to play a role that does not come naturally and which she cannot sustain.
Turner's sudden departure, though devastating, launches her on a journey of self discovery. Along the way she picks up a travelling companion, Indrin, a gentle man 10 years her junior who is bound for a seminary and a life as a Catholic priest.
The two become friends as they make their way to Vancouver. Miranda is an atheist and sharply questions his commitment to Catholicism. She also finds the constraints of a purely platonic relationship to be difficult. She understood the old rules of the sex roles, but the new way is a challenge of a different kind.
But in the fast-moving events of both the physical and spiritual journeys, she begins to make sense out of her life. She discovers, the author says, a few of those rare moments "when something clicks, an epiphany, that makes us see all that is fascinating in the world around us."
Webber, 37, is the arts reporter for CBC TV and Radio in Saskatchewan. Born in Ottawa she spent her early childhood in Calgary and Montreal, coming to Saskatoon with her family when she was 9. She has spent about 10 years in TV news and current affairs, working in Calgary and Edmonton before coming back to Saskatoon. She draws heavily on her own experiences in this, her first novel.
Miranda is not her alter ego, however. "We're not at all alike. For one thing she is highly critical of the Catholic Church, and I'm a practicing Catholic."
But knowing what goes on behind and in front of the cameras helped her to make the newsroom seem very real, and that's an important element. Webber has also written for the stage. Her first play, Beside Myself, was produced in Saskatoon last winter. She's done some screen and stage acting as well, and she believes it all helped.
"Not only did I need the background of the newsroom to write this character, but my acting background helped too. Maybe I'm a 'method writer.' Acting really helps, anyhow, because I think you actually become a little bit of the character."
Defying Gravity is sensual even though the story eschews overt sexuality. The writing style is spare, reflecting Webber's broadcast background. This is an engaging first novel by a writer with something of value to say about the society spawned by the tempestuous 20th century. Coteau is the publisher; the softcover price is $18.95 (CDN)