The major achievement of RuFF (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2024) is the artful way in which author Rod Carley weaves the slender threads of historical fact into a broader fictional tapestry to create a raucously pun-driven tale of Elizabethan politics, theatre, magic, and mayhem. The novel features a relatively familiar cast of characters from the theatrical scene in that era, including William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Kit Marlowe, Richard Burbage, and Will Kempe. Women are given equal time in the form of Anne Hathaway, daughter Judith, and Magdalene Marbecke, known here as Maggie. Rounding out the motley crew are an assortment of allies, enemies, soldiers, peasants, peers, and political toadies – but most importantly, animals – specifically Shakespeare’s three-legged beagle, Biscuit; Judith’s cat, Gray-Malkin; and a crow named Cawdor.
RuFF by Rod Carley (Latitude 46).
Carley spins a sprawling story set in Elizabethan England but evokes many modern-day echoes, such as the Plague with much of the public eschewing masks and other preventative measures that would keep them healthy. As well, there are the Puritan reformers, a minority who wield power by fusing religion and politics while reducing important issues, like women’s rights, into reigning culture wars. They are clearly recognizable as the Moral Majority from the last century or the growing Christian Nationalist movement of today.
The opening chapter acts as a prologue in which we see Marlowe as mentor to Shakespeare. When two child-catchers go after a young Tommy Middleton to “recruit” him into a theatre company, it is Kit and Will to the rescue with much help from an aggressive crow.
Jump ahead eighteen years and Will is a celebrated playwright, part of the establishment that is derided by a new breed of playwrights and pamphleteers known as punks, one of whom is Middleton, having forgotten his earlier history with the Bard of Avon. The punks want to usher in a new cultural order, such as having women playing themselves on stage rather than being portrayed by boys. This idealism, along with a strong sexual attraction, is what binds Middleton and theatre seamstress Maggie Marbecke, who has ambitions to be the first woman to act on stage.
After the death of the Queen and the ascension of King James of Scotland, Middleton and Maggie are both locked in the Tower at the mercy of head torturer, the Catholic-hating Trapdoor, who forces them to falsely ally themselves to Shakespeare in order to find evidence that would expose him as a secret Catholic so he can be arrested.
That’s about as much of the plot as I dare to get into. And while the plot and pacing are as intricate as they are absorbing, with Carley’s background as a theatre artist clearly bolstering his novelist’s chops, it is his obvious love of language that carries the reader literally from page to page. Here’s a passage, chosen at random, that will give you an idea of what I’m talking about:
Will opened the door. Burbage’s presence filled the room. He was a mortal god on earth with sharp wolfish features and mesmerizing blue eyes, big of both beard and appetite, his hair being his most prized possession. His barber stiffened, starched, powdered, perfumed, waxed, and dyed it a fashionable red which he wore shoulder-length and curled with hot irons. He produced a bottle of sack and plunked himself down on the bed. After tossing Biscuit a bone, the bigger-than-life actor found two dirty cups under a stack of papers, filled both to near overflowing, and handed one to Will. “Imported from Spain,” he said, raising his cup like a mighty stage king. “Here’s a toast to animal pleasures, to imagination, to rain on a roof and fine tobacco, to summer tours and full houses, to sack and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and rich conversation, to the actor’s life -- whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.” He took a long sip of the sweet, fortified wine. “May we be who our dogs think we are.”
A good example of Carley’s wit, although it’s not a toast I’d apply to cats. Nor to crows. And here is the way Carley introduces us to King James:
“These bog-biting biscuits are drier than a nun’s crack on Good Friday.”
He was not a kingly man.
The Protestant clergy of the Kirk bowed their heads in resigned embarrassment. To describe him as vulgar was a Scottish understatement. He had none of the beauty of his mother, nor the straight-backed grace of the English Queen. Yet, he was born to be a king. Jimmy was only eight-months old when his father was murdered. The suspected involvement of his mother in the murder forced her to abdicate to England; he never saw her again.
“You bastards!” Diaper-Rag Jimmy wailed at his political advisors. They were the first two words all Scottish babies learned. The mewling King was little more than a pawn in his advisors’ political machinations.
I could go on with more excerpts, but then I’d end up reproducing most of this thoroughly engaging novel and deprive you of the chance to discover it’s rat-infested, poetry-spouting, pock-marked, pun-spinning, beer-soaked, vomit-spewing, pie-gorging, witch-fearing, politics-bashing, Puritan-blaspheming, mud-caked and ghost-shimmering delights for yourself. From start to finish, you will be stepping into the days of yore only to keep finding yourself, for better or for worse, in the present moment.
Rod Carley. (Photo Credit: Virginia MacDonald.
About Rod Carley:
Rod is the award-winning author of three previous works of literary fiction: GRIN REAPING (long listed for the 2023 Leacock Medal for Humour, 2022 Bronze Winner for Humour from Foreword Review INDIES, a Finalist for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Humor/Comedy, and long listed for the ReLit Group Awards for Best Short Fiction of 2023); KINMOUNT (long listed for the 2021 Leacock Medal for Humour and Winner of the 2021 Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction from the Independent Publishers Book Awards); A Matter of Will (Finalist for the 2018 Northern Lit Award for Fiction).
His short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian literary magazines including Broadview (winner of the 2022 Award of Excellence for Best Seasonal Article from the Associated Church Press), Cloud Lake Literary, Blank Spaces, Exile, HighGrader, and the anthology 150 Years Up North and More. He was a finalist for the 2021 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize.
Rod was the 2009 winner of TVO’s Big Ideas/Best Lecturer Competition for his lecture entitled “Adapting Shakespeare within a Modern Canadian Context. He is a proud alumnus of the Humber School for Writers and is represented by Carolyn Forde, Senior Literary Agent with The Transatlantic Agency. www.rodcarley.ca.
Steven Mayoff
About Steven Mayoff:
Steven Mayoff (he/him) was born and raised in Montreal. His fiction and poetry have appeared in literary journals across Canada, the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of the story collection Fatted Calf Blues, winner of the 2010 PEI Book Award for Fiction; the novel Our Lady of Steerage; and two books of poetry Leonard’s Flat and Swinging Between Water and Stone. His acclaimed novel, The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief, was released by Radiant Press in 2023. Steven lives in Foxley River, PEI.