Set in my home city of Winnipeg, back in 1983, What Friends are For, presents, with tantalizing tension, the still-hot-button issue of abortion. Told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old, Leesa, I was reminded of the strong emotions this topic brought to media, politics, religious communities and even to my own dinner table. I remember getting up and leaving the table when one of my uncles, a known womanizer who’d served in Hitler’s Wehrmacht, began name-calling Dr. Morgentaler. Yes, the eighties were filled with such characters and such tensions … even here in Winnipeg.
Harriet Zaidman showcases the nuanced views that continue to complicate what should be a straight-forward issue. Our bodies are our own. As Leesa struggles with her unfortunate predicament, we learn about Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the man who courageously fought for women’s right to choose and about the anti-abortionists, including church-based evangelicals, along with activists like Joe Borowski.
There’s an interesting subplot, focused on a young woman’s murder back in the eighties, where the wrong man was sent to prison. It underlines our city’s convoluted need to appear just.
Struggling marriages, a woman’s need for financial independence, and the lack of accountability for young men with big egos and sexual aggression are deftly handled by Zaidman. No wonder her previous novels (Strike, 1919 about the union movement in Winnipeg and Second Chances, about the polio epidemic here in Winnipeg) received national awards. With What Friends are For, Zaidman’s social commentary continues to be spot-on.
Zaidman’s protagonist, Leesa, is bombarded from both sides of the issue and as a reader I lived through the stress of her fear and the strength of her conviction. Kudos to the author for re-opening a door to a topic that continues to be contentious.
