Centre / Center

Centre/Center begins on the eve of the American lunar mission in 1969. A group of friends celebrate a moon wake on the Pacific shore of California, fearful of the cosmic consequences of the impending technological defilement of Diana, the virginal moon goddess who presides over children, the hunt, and the virgin forest. Presented as a tryptic of three novellas spanning two generations, each interrelated section is set a decade apart, and the unfolding lives of these characters are seen from the perspective of a different member of the group in each panel. Throughout, there is a gradual movement of characters from America, to what is perceived as the unspoiled neighbor to the north, Canada. The last panel is narrated in 1989 by the young daughter of one of the original protagonists. With an increasing sense of bewilderment, she deconstructs the personal mythologies so carefully embroidered by her father and his friends over an entire generation. Centre/Center is a moving and poignant good-bye to a country, an era, and the naïve illusions held so dearly by a whole post-war generation in North America.