I picked up Getting Married in Buffalo Jump by Susan Haley on a whim from the library, remembering the TV movie that aired frequently on weekends when I was growing up. Published in 1987, it is the story of Sophie, a rural Alberta kindergarten teacher whose father has recently died, leaving her and her mother with a farm they love but cannot run on their own. When Alexander Bresnyachuk, who was a few years ahead of her at high school before he suddenly dropped out and left town, comes to work as their farmhand things immediately begin looking up. But very quickly he shocks Sophie by proposing; Alexander has a vision of a practical marriage, unbothered by the lack of romance that has passed between them so far:
‘I’ve been around. I’ve been around too much and I’m tired of it. I want a place and I want a wife, and I want to have kids. You’re a real nice girl, Sophia. I think I’d make you a pretty good husband. So? What about it?’
At twenty-eight, Sophie has some failed affairs behind her and while there is no great bitterness, there is also not a lot of hope. Indeed, on Alexander’s first visit to the farm she had mused to herself that it was love when he started to help her immediately in the garden:
It was not that there were not many men who would offer to help with a manure fork; it was that there were not many men. Sophie had begun to wonder whether there were any at all.
Sophie accepts his proposal, but warily. Her mother is initially horrified – her educated daughter should do better than a poor drop-out Ukrainian – but for Sophie the hesitation comes from Alexander’s past and how little she knows of it. Slowly, she seeks out the people in his life so she can better understand who he is, why he left, and, ultimately, why he came back. She befriends Annie, his high school girlfriend who is the mother of his son, gets to know his troubled sister, and enjoys his adoring Ukrainian mother and dramatic Russian-Ukrainian father. And through it all, she unravels the mystery of Benny, Alexander’s childhood best friend who is at the centre of all the old stories but nowhere to been seen now.
This is a lovely low-key romance, with Alexander quietly showing his worth and dependability, but it is even more a portrait of a prairie town, and all the prejudices and problems that entails. There is too much drinking, smoking, and, for some, drugs but these are not ‘Issues’ for the novel, merely realistic background. Likewise the racial tensions: the Bresnyachuks are Ukrainians, a sizeable ethnic minority on the Canadian prairies; indeed, prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022 and the flood of refugees to neighboring European states, Canada had the third largest Ukrainian population in the world after Ukraine and Russian because of early 20th century immigration. But that didn’t make them a respected minority and that condescension is captured here, with the attitudes of Sophie, her mother, and various friends towards Alexander’s family. Worse though is how First Nations people are treated, like Annie and Benny. Racial slurs are casually used by and against each group in a way that feels very true to life and the era.
It is a book of straightforward people. Sophie is trying to understand Alexander, to figure out what the catch is around a man who is handsome, kind, and hardworking; but sometimes, happily, people are what they seem. Annie, despite being left a single mother in her mid-teens, has no fight with Alexander and wishes him the best; she is happy to prop up the local bar and then go home to her trucker husband and children. Poppa Bresnyachuk is dramatic, full of contradictory over-the-top stories about his wartime exploits, but irrepressibly loveable. Momma Bresnyachuk is doting over her favourite son but pleased by his choice of Sophie; the most realistic moment in the entire book for me was Momma overseeing Sophie preparing a plate of pickles and cured meats on her first visit to Alexander’s family home. This is absolutely how a Slavic mother will judge you. Sophie’s own mother is a straightlaced WASP who thinks the lessons of her passionate marriage don’t apply to her daughter’s marriage of convenience.
All in all, this was a pleasant surprise with a welcome sense of humour and I’m so glad my whimsy led me to it.
Love it when a spontaneous book choice turns into something surprisingly delightful!
The best kind of surprise!