Life

KIRKUS REVIEWHooper?s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied. On Saskatchewan?s Great Plains grew 15 Vogel children. When Otto Vogel was still a child, half-orphaned Russell joined the brood. The Great Depression burned on, crops failed, and schooling was casual. One of the teachers was Etta, no older than Otto and Russell. World War II came. Otto left. Russell, broken leg improperly mended, could not. As Hooper?s shifting narrative opens, now-83-year-old Etta awakens, intending to walk to Canada?s east coast, leaving a brief note for her husband, Otto. She carries a bit of food, a rifle, and a note of her identity and home. To a Cormac McCarthy?like narrative¥sans quotation marks, featuring crisp, concise conversationsÂ¥Hooper adds magical realism: Etta?s joined by a talking coyote she names James, who serves as guide and sounding board. With Etta absent, Otto begins baking from her recipes, his companion a guinea pig, always silent. Soon Otto becomes obsessed with constructing a menagerie of papier-m?ch? wildlife. Russell, shy lifelong bachelor and Etta?s wartime lover, follows her, finds her, only to hear her urge him to seek his own quest "because you want to and you?re allowed to and you can. You could have if you wanted to enough"Â¥the novel's thematic heart. Russell disappears into flashbacks. Hooper reveals more of Etta and Otto in letters exchanged during World War II, where Otto by turns is terrified, sickened and enthralled. Otto marries Etta on return, a less than perfect union shadowed by damaged Otto striking out at Etta. With beautifully crafted descriptionsÂ¥derelict farm machinery as "gently stagnant machines"Â¥Hooper immerses herself in characters, each shaped by the Depression. The book ends with sheer poetry, stunning and powerful, multiple short chapters where identities and dreams, longings and memories shift and cling to one character and then another within the "long loop of existence."A masterful near homage to Pilgrim?s Progress: souls redeemed through struggle.Pub Date: Jan. 20th, 2015ISBN: 978-1-4767-5567-0Page count: 320ppPublisher: Simon & Schuster

Fieldnotes:
Saskatchewan, Great Depression/WWII & Present (p.2018)

2 Narratives
3 Perspective Characters
1 Farmer Boy with Difficulty Writing
1 New Arrival on the Neighboring Farm
1 Terrible Farming Accident
1 Pretty Young School Teacher

Saskatchewan
1 Very Long Walk
1 Coyote Companion Singing Cowboy Songs
Papier Mache Menagerie
Unexpected Celebrity

WWII Trauma
1 Love Triangle (ish)
Mental Illness

The Short Version
Told in dual timelines and from different points of view, this is the story of Etta (a schoolteacher), her husband Otto, their neighbor Russell and James (a coyote who may or may not be real). In her 80s, one morning Etta - who has memory issues - sets off walking from their dusty farm in Saskatchewan headed east to the ocean. It is Otto's turn to wait for her - paralleling when she waited for him when he was fighting overseas in WWII.

This is odd but charming, the quirks of the isolated farm folk largely accepted (what else can you do, really, with so little company). In some ways it felt like an updated, grown-up Little House book even though set in the 30s, and the modern trek across the continent was reflective and meditative in a folktale sort of way (with the addition of a coyote who sings cowboy songs). The WWII sections with the letters being sent back and forth in batches were just the sort of thing I like. We cut back and forth between characters, between timelines - just existence. Otto learning to fend for himself through trial and error helped by recipe cards Etta left him. Etta's relationship with the ocean she's seeking as a place that heralds loss (her sister, the many young men sent across to France). Childhood on the farm running around with the neighbor boy. Fierce loyalty. Subtext left as subtext. A colloquial, forthright tone (like Mattie from True Grit though less funny) I was convinced I would love this.

And I did - until the last quarter or so where I felt the story ran out of steam/patience and so heavy-handedly stuck in a message about Etta losing herself/her personality in Otto and his trauma and no longer felt natural, and while I don't mind an ending not tied up in a bow, I disliked the ambiguity of this one.

Still - I'd recommend it to those who don't mind their novels going philosophical and ambiguous. ( )

fiction (small town Canada / life journeys / human connections) ( )

beautiful.
I wept tears of weeping. ( )