Jared
Martin lives in Kitimat, British Columbia, in a dysfunctional home. His parents are divorced; his father is
recovering from drug addiction and is financially strapped, while his mother, with
whom Jared lives, has anger-management issues and keeps making poor
relationship choices. To financially
support his father, Jared sells marijuana-laced cookies. His life can only be described as dismal; the
arrival of his neighbours’ granddaughter brings Jared some joy, but she has
issues of her own. Then things become
downright weird when he starts having strange nightmares, seeing ghosts, and
hearing talking animals.
There is
little structure to the novel. Just as
Jared drifts through life, the novel feels adrift. It seems to meander aimlessly through Jared’s
days and nights of drinking, drug usage, being bullied, and having sex. The endless partying and verbal and physical violence
get tiresome. After focusing on hyper
realism, the novel changes shape and veers into magic realism where fireflies
philosophize and conjugate French verbs and where river otters want to devour
him.
The message
of the novel seems to be that “The world is hard . . . [so] You have to be
harder.” This advice is mentioned at
least four times. It is certainly a
message that Jared takes to heart. Despite
his difficult circumstances, he never gives up.
He is, in fact, a person the reader will come to like. Jared is caring, compassionate, and forgiving. He takes responsibility for paying bills when
his mother leaves without explanation; he helps his elderly neighbours; he
helps his father catch up on late rent payments; and he makes time for people
who once bullied him. He is so kind and
generous that people take advantage of him.
Of course he is not a perfect person; his sarcasm often gets him into
trouble, and his substance abuse is certainly not admirable.
Besides
having a realistic protagonist, the novel is realistic in other ways as
well. The dialogue, especially that used
in texting, is definitely that of contemporary teenagers. Though his life may be more difficult than
that of most teenagers, Jared’s concerns and interests are those of a typical
adolescent: social acceptance, school,
partying, sex.
Magic
realism with its supernatural elements is not a genre I enjoy so the last third
of the book had little interest for me.
What bothered me in particular is that it comes out of nowhere. For example, there has been no indication
that a character has supernatural powers but then she is identified as a witch: “’She’s got this whole imaginary world going
where she’s a big powerful witch and she’s being chased by mythical creatures.’”
This book appears
on the shortlist for the 2017 Giller Prize and has received many positive
reviews, but I was not overly impressed with it, other than that it is brutally
realistic. I think it would appeal to
young people because it does address issues they face, though some school
libraries might reject it because of its offensive language, graphic violence,
and explicit scenes of sex and drug/alcohol abuse.
I read that
this book is the first of a trilogy, but I don’t think I’ll be reading any
sequels.
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