David Bergen explores grief and mortality in 'The Matter with Morris'

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by: Sheri Block
Date: 11/4/2010 11:15:00 AM ET

How can you go on living when your child has died?

It’s the question the middle-aged main character in David Bergen’s Giller-nominated novel “The Matter with Morris” struggles with as he grieves for his son who was killed in Afghanistan.

Bergen, who won a Giller in 2005 for his novel “The Time in Between” and who made the long-list in 2008 for “The Retreat,” says he was interested in telling this side of the story after hearing about the loss of Canadian soldiers in the news.

While it’s easy to become desensitized to what’s happening in the war-torn country, Bergen takes a direct look at how a family of one of these soldiers copes with such a tragedy.

“I write characters and the characters are relating to other characters and in this case there was a domesticity gone awry in a sense for this novel and what makes it go awry is the death of (Morris’ 20-year-old son) Martin,” Bergen tells CTV.ca over the phone from his home in Winnipeg,  Man.  

Bergen didn’t speak to any parents who lost a child in Afghanistan but did consult with a soldier to help him in his research.

He also made a conscious choice to have Martin shot by a fellow soldier, as opposed to a roadside bomb or enemy attack.

“I think there are accidents and then there are tragedies and I think Morris deals with this idea of, ‘Was this an accident?’ or the whole idea of what an accident is and in this case, it makes the fellow who shot the gun more implicit, it deepens the story in some way. It also begs for some sort of acknowledgement and forgiveness on the parents’ part.”

The death of his son sets off a chain of events for Morris that includes taking a forced leave of absence from his job as a newspaper columnist and his wife leaving him. He also becomes obsessed with women and sex, hiring prostitutes and lusting after a much-younger woman to try and fill the void while searching for meaning in philosophic teachings. It all leads to a full-blown “midlife crisis.”  

Bergen, who was 51 when he began writing the book two years ago, says he was also interested in writing a story from the viewpoint of someone who was the same age as himself. The author says it’s not uncommon for men, including him, to start to contemplate their lives when they hit a certain age. 

“I think there’s a nostalgic hearkening back, a recognition that you can’t go back but certainly I think a lot of us try and then we make fools of ourselves and make mistakes,” says Bergen. 

“Fortunately not all of us do (what Morris does). We have others to guide us or to say don’t go there but I think there’s a danger in becoming too nostalgic for what we have perceived to have missed or the life that we thought we were going to live but didn’t.”

Bergen, who has four children around Martin’s age, says while there are parallels to his and Morris’ lives, it is not an autobiographical story.

“It was not so much a reflection of my immediate facts but more a reflection of my thinking and how to approach the world and how to, as Morris says, think about my thinking,” says Bergen.

“That’s what I was exploring as a man who has crossed over the threshold of 50 years and into the descent as they say and perhaps more aware of mortality and that’s what Morris is facing both in the death of his son and his own mortality. The thinking around how to be in the world, that was very personal.”