Howard Norman, The Museum Guard

Howard Norman's The Museum Guard is a quiet novel narrated by its quietest character. DeFoe Russet is one of two museum guards at a small art museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The other guard is his uncle, who is his opposite in most ways. Where DeFoe is taciturn, Edward is overly talkative. Where DeFoe is neat and buttoned down, Edward is slovenly and disheveled. And most problematically for him, where DeFoe is fawning and subservient toward his girlfriend (who is borderline emotionally abusive to him), Edward is a carefree ladies' man.

The plot, centered around a Dutch painting by the fictional Joop Heijman titled Jewess on a Street in Amsterdam, unfolds against the backdrop of Hilter's first moves toward expansion. The subject of the painting bears a certain resemblance to DeFoe's girlfriend Imogene who, as she becomes aware of this, begins to loose herself into a strange fantasy life as Heijman's wife, adopting the costume worn by the figure in the painting (who does turn out to be Heijman's wife, killed by the Nazis in some of their first advances) and affecting a transparently false Dutch accent.

The sparse writing of The Museum Guard, which bears few stylistic flourishes, conveys the sense of isolation experienced by DeFoe (orphaned as a young boy by a freak accident), the cold Canadian winter, and the emotional chill cast by the posturing of Hitler and the murmurs of fear passed through the Jewish community from Europe to North America. It is worth noting that none of the central characters here are Jews, but they are increasingly pulled toward the conflict as a Gentile in Canada comes to believe herself to be the Jewess on a Street in Amsterdam.