has encountered aspects of Native society most outsiders never see. She draws on some of that experience for her new novel, .
As their lawyer, I had to know a lot about them, about their stories and what theyd gone through, says Pinder, who worked as a land claims litigator for First Nations tribes for 28 years. I was taken deep into their societies. It was a tremendously privileged position.
Spirit-dancing and twin masks (representing blindness and sight) are among her recollections that have made it into the book. But the story, a mix of fact and fiction, has historical underpinnings that date back to before Pinder began her Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»law firm in 1982.
In 1958, cultural anthropologist Wilson Duff arranged with the Gitksan community to remove some totem poles from their original habitat to the Royal British Columbia Museum.
In Bring Me One of Everything, Pinders (fictional) character Austin Hart brokers a similar deal and, shortly after, kills himself. Our present-day heroine Alicia (Alix), who has been hired to write the libretto for an opera based on Harts life, wants to know why.
The initiating event that really kicks off Alixs quest is the taking the poles, notes Pinder. I took that and that confused mission and the suicide as the initiating events. The guy [Duff] who led the expedition did kill himself, but that was a number of years later.
Theres more to the book than Alicias investigation into Harts suicide, however. The relationship between the protagonist and her frail, sick mother, Sophia, becomes central to the tale. It took me a couple of years to get the character of Sophia right, says Pinder.
Although the book draws on some of her time in First Nations communities, none of the Native characters in the book are based on anyone in particular. Theyre partly woven from a conglomerate, says Pinder. Once you write them out they take off on their own. All the characters are like that, including Alix.
Pinder, who became the first female litigator hired by a large Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»firm, gave up her law practice in 2005 to return to her first love, writing. Shes spent much of the last seven years writing Bring Me One of Everything, which appears 22 years after her previous novel, On Double Tracks. (Her first, Under the House, was published in 1986).
Readers wont have to wait as long for the next one, however; Pinder has already finished a novel, Indulgence, which was written in tandem with Bring Me One of Everything.
