The Factory Voice
Written by Jeanette Lynes
SYNOPSIS
The lives and dreams of four vital, engaging, women revolve around mysterious events at a Fort William military aircraft factory in 1941.
Loyalty and betrayal, love and worthiness, friendship and ambition are the themes which connect the characters in this lively, quirky, fast-paced novel.Wrapped around the stories of these four women, is a mystery. Something’s gone wrong with the Mosquitoes being built for the war effort – they keep crashing in flight tests, for no apparent reason. Is the problem with their design, or are they being sabotaged? By whom? The traitorous Red Finns? The political subversives who have recently escaped from one of the nearby prison camps? Everyone’s on high alert and “The Factory Voice” keeps abreast of the details or at least the rumours.Rich with forties language and imagery, especially the sights and sounds of an assembly plant, The Factory Voice is a quirky, light-hearted mystery about the daily lives of factory workers and in particular of women in a time of transition, both for their personal lives and for the society in general.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeanette Lynes holds a Ph.D. in Canadian Literature (York University) and an MFA in Creative Writing (University of Southern Maine). She has published scholarly articles on Canadian literary regionalism, Canadian poetry, Canadian fiction and, more recently, an essay in The Literary History of Saskatchewan Vol. 2 on Saskatchewan poets of the 1980s. She edited a volume on Canadian poet M. Travis Lane for the Laurier Poetry Series (Wilfrid Laurier University Press). In 2015, her co-edited volume, with David Eso, Where the Nights are Twice as Long: Love Letters of Canadian Poets was published by Goose Lane Editions. Jeanette is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems, recipient of the 2016 Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award. Jeanette’s second novel, The Small Things That End The World was published by Coteau Books in 2018. Her first novel, The Factory Voice was long-listed for the 2009 Scotia Bank Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. Jeanette was recently a Visiting Fellow at Bard Graduate Center in New York City and Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. She teaches Canadian literature and creative writing and directs the MFA in Writing at University of Saskatchewan.
‘LIFE IS BUT A DREAM’ – THE ROSIES, A RETROSPECTIVE
Over a decade has passed since my novel, The Factory Voice, was published. This novel was inspired by the women who worked at Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William, Ontario, during World War II. I was fortunate to take the novel ‘on the road’. It was a featured book at Oshawa Public Library. I spoke about it and read from it at The Sleeping Giant Writers’ Festival and numerous other writing festivals and book clubs. All this was a great honour and thrill. I received numerous emails from readers; the story of three young women and their dreams during a time of war had touched these readers, and there are few better rewards for a writer. But my story of Audrey, Ruby, and Florence and their dreams wouldn’t have happened without the real Rosies, some of whom I had the privilege to interview, with my colleagues, while still on faculty at Lakehead University. I’ll never forget their humility above all, how they seemed rather puzzled that we would regard them as heroines. They welcomed us into their homes, and remember lots of teacups, doilies, and large upholstered armchairs. One lady still had her pay stubs from Can Car and scurried into another room to retrieve them and show them to us. When I watched Kelly Saxberg’s 1999 NFB documentary Rosies of the North a year or two later, I was moved to tears. I could feel the spirit and courage of these women all over again. That spirit and courage infused my fictional characters in The Factory Voice. Ruby, a local girl with big dreams of glamour and her own apartment in Port Arthur, Florence’s longing for acceptance, and Audrey’s feisty thirst for adventure and the freedom a regular paycheque brings. At the risk of sounding self-indulgent I still love them all, still ‘feel’ them quite clearly– Ruby clacking away on her typewriter or applying lipstick. Audrey whirlwind-ing around the plant, Florence learning to weld. These young women sprang from my imagination – facets of me, perhaps, in certain respects. Fictional characters are composites that way. The Chief Engineer in The Factory Voice is inspired by Canada’s first female aeronautical engineer, Elsie MacGill. How tenderly I lifted her papers from their box in the National Library archives, as I studied her work. A chill rippled through me as I gazed upon her pencil squiggles on paper that grew more brittle by the month.
I love these characters still, and I still hold great affection for the place. The Lakehead has a hum and vibe like no other landscape where I’ve lived – and I’ve lived in many. It is highly unlikely that many of the ‘Rosies’ I met in the ‘90s that inspired my story are still with us. Life is but a dream that way. But they will always form my core as a fiction writer and recently I seem to be circling back to their era, and to the unforgettable region, north of Superior, that continues to be important to me as a writer.
Thank you:
Lakehead University – Department of History
Thunder Bay Community Foundation
