Paul Mackan is a true master of the arts. For more than four decades, he was involved in community theatre and church music, as well as spending several years as a freelance broadcaster with CBC radio. His efforts won him an ACTRA Award, as well as a filmmaker prize from the Ontario Arts Council.
With an already distinguished artistic career, the Ottawa resident is now keeping busy by writing fiction and poetry books. Ready for the holiday season, he has published two new works, one a collection of short stories and another a children’s book.
Holy Christmas!, which was released earlier this month, contains eight short stories. Four of the tales have the same characters: Pete, an auto mechanic, and Margaret, a pediatric nurse from CHEO who meets Pete when she brings in her little red Honda to get a flat tire fixed.
Set in Ottawa, these four stories follow the growing relationship between Pete and Margaret, with sweet and touching observations.
The other stories range from a moving tale about the death of a grandmother, to arguably the best piece in the book, a story about a police constable who discovers that a baby Jesus has been stolen from a Church nativity scene, and then has a strange experience with the young person he arrests for the crime.
Brian-O, which was released earlier this year, is Mackan’s other recent book, which tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Brian who decides to stay small. While trying to keep his “way cool” parents happy, he becomes a successful goalie in a mixed hockey league. Brian, however, has a secret: He does not want to play hockey, but rather pursue an interest that he does not want to share with his parents.
“This books is marketed for young people, but I have had more and more adults tell me how much they enjoy it,” says Mackan in a phone interview. “That came as a surprise.”
I suspect that parents may be attracted to this book because it reveals a difficult but important truth, namely, that parents sometimes get involved in their children’s life to pursue their own dreams.
Brian and his two siblings are all highly talented: his eldest brother Kevin is a master pianist, his older sister Ellen an excellent artist. All three children, however, share a feeling that their parents are not encouraging their abilities, but rather imposing their own goals on them.
When I raise this thought with Mackan, he offers up the opinion that childhood has changed over the decades. When he was a child, he recalls, children were allowed to play for hours without adult supervision and live in a world largely free of grown-ups.
“I tell young people that I come from an entirely different civilization. I say that quite truthfully and sincerely. A lot has changed around me and I had to adapt,” says Mackan.
Fast forward to today and adults play a much larger role.
“Now I look around and (parents) are driving their children all over the place,” observes Mackan.
At its best, Brian-O raises offers a sweet story that can allow parents and children to enter into an important discussion. This intriguing premise, however, is unfortunately weakened by spotty editing, as the book is filled with many typos and typographical inconsistencies.
Despite these editing errors, it does offer an interesting observation on the parent-child relationship that made me, as a parent, reflect on how I should interact with my young children.
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