Come, Thou Tortoise

Hooked by the first 8 pages! And loved it the whole way through.

Audrey, the narrator, knows her IQ is lower, but that doesn't stop her. It makes her quirky and lovable. She keeps a pet tortoise, who interjects her own narrative every so often. Their style is short staccato sentences, sans quotation marks, but it's not too difficult to pick up the dialogue once you figure out how it works. In fact, it's this direct style that contributes to the book.

If you like [b:Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime], you'll probably love this book too.

I love the word play, the directness, the honesty of the characters. I love the Shakespeare references and the way Audrey (and the tortoise) fill in the past with their recollections. What was show more unclear becomes clear through these regressions. I do wish the book had maybe one more chapter, because there wasn't quite enough information to fully colour in the conclusion; I have to hope that the way I connected the dots is indeed what was intended.

This could be a new favourite book. show less

A very lovable book with an endearing protagonist. We join Audrey (Oddly) Flowers as she flies from Portland, Oregon, to her hometown of St. John's, Newfoundland, where her dear old dad is in a coma, and her life is about to change. The book is spent mostly with Audrey as she tries to come to grips with her new life and delves through her memories of the past. There are also interludes spoken by Winnifred, Audrey's tortoise, who has been left behind in Portland with friends of Audrey's.

Even though the voices are kind of similar, Winnifred's feels older, more mature, which is not surprising considering how long-lived tortoises can get. Audrey's voice, meanwhile, is filled with wordplay and wonderful observations. The stories she tells show more and the way she tells them are quite endearing, and I definitely laughed out loud in places. Audrey is the sort of person who can say what you're thinking but don't want to say because it would be impolite or not entirely appropriate. She just says what she has to say, and it's always fun to meet characters like that, especially when they really mean no harm, as is the case with Audrey. Childlike, that's the word I want. Audrey still has her sense of wonder and curiosity, which makes her a great protagonist.

One hang-up about this book is the fact that the author does not use quotation marks, and the story is told in present tense, but once you're into the story you hardly notice those things. So if you like first-person narration with wordplay and warm humour, and some interesting quirky touches, Come, Thou Tortoise will serve you well. show less

Grant keeps the plot running with effortless efficiency, somehow rooting its absurdities in reality. There is very little in the way of overt wackiness, and Grant's writing never becomes irritatingly coy or overbearing. Oddly and Winnifred are winning characters (Winnifred is given far less to do, but that's for the best), and Grant populates her pages with all sorts of endearing characters. Especially Uncle Thoby, a relative from England, holder of the family secrets and saddled with one arm longer than the other.

Come, Thou Tortoise, with echoes of Vonnegut by way of the gentler humour of Miram Toews, is strange. So strange. And like Oddly, so very, very lovable.

Read the rest of the review here.

How to describe this book? It's charming, thought-provoking, heart-warming and utterly delightful.

Audrey Flowers is living in Portland Oregon with her tortoise, Winifred, waiting for her lover, Cliff, to return. Then she gets a call that her father has been in an accident in St. John's Newfoundland and is in what Audrey calls 'a comma'. So she leaves Winifred with friends and flies home to St. John's. You just know it's going to be a fun read when she disarms the air marshall in the airplane because she thinks he is a terrorist.

When Audrey (or Oddly as her uncle Thorby calls her) finally arrives home she is met by her uncle who tells her that her father did not make it. So is it maybe not going to be such a fun read after all?

Audrey is show more different. Her IQ is low but she is not stupid. Maybe she just doesn't give the answers to IQ questions that the people who made up the test expected. Her father and her uncle Thorby raised her and neither of them thought she was stupid.

With her father dead Audrey's world is about to change dramatically. I read this book with my heart in my throat at times because I really, really wanted Audrey to have someone or at least something to love and for a while it looked like everyone was leaving her. I don't think it is a spoiler if I say it all works out in the end. show less

Tortoise is truly funny. Audrey's literal interpretations of almost everything couple well with the bizarre cast of family and neighbours that inhabit her world. Her misunderstandings are the fodder for many of the most humorous moments, although Winnifred the tortoise seems also to have a bit of an acerbic wit about her. But the book is also incredibly poignant. The full scale of the affection that Audrey's family and friends hold for her is only slowly revealed over the course of the work, but by the end I was full of very rare feelings about this work. There are moments in this story with so much pathos; moments where Audrey could easily give up. The incredible honesty and stubbornness in her character in these moments of true show more despair was very inspiring. I haven't rooted for a character this much in a long time. Jessica Grant does an amazing job of really pulling in the reader to not only an interesting story but into the mind of a brave young woman who seems so very nearly real by the end of the story. And thankfully (I think it would have broke my heart if it hadn't!) Tortoise ends on a happy note.

Read the rest of my review here: http://thevegbrarian.blogspot.ca/2013/01/jessica-grants-come-thou-tortoise-revie... show less

As a fan of novels narrated by or told from the perspective of animals (Watership Down by Richard Adams and Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann to name a couple), the chapters narrated by main character Audrey Flowers' left-behind tortoise, Winifred, charmed me silly. The entire novel did. It's the story of Audrey, who has...how shall we say...a mental deficiency maybe, or rather a special mind that grants her a very special view of the world. It's a view I came to love, to be jealous of, and have tried to use to see my own world. Ponds have no bottoms in Audrey's world. Mice live forever. Is it real or imagined? It's both. Audrey learns of her father's tragic death-by-Christmas-tree in the opening chapter, and she must travel home to her show more small Canadian town to attend to things. Her past collides with her future, and as a reader seeing the world through Audrey's unique view, nothing is ever quite what it seems. Am I being vague? Yes. But heartbreak and love and family are vague concepts. Oddly, Audrey seems to understand them better than most. But perhaps the best part of COME, THOU TORTOISE is the language, and by language I mean that Jessica Grant makes up a new language as she goes, and by the end the reader understands that "Quantus" is a wish for safety, a coma is only a comma, and a montage is a dream. Reading COME, THOU TORTOISE is a delightful montage. Read more of my reviews at: http://onlygreatbooks.blogspot.com/ show less

This is one of my top 10 books of all time. I absolutely loved it.

Audrey (Oddly) flies home after her father's death, leaving her pet tortoise (not a turtle) behind with friends.

At home, she's greeted by Uncle Tobey, who's lived her and her father ever since Audrey was a child. Her father's estate needs to be settled by overseas family friend, Toff (who Audrey hates), and the local Christmas-light salesman keeps stopping by because her father purchased lights that have since been recalled.

The language in this book is incredibly clever. The idiolect of Audrey's family is hilarious, and the stories of where their unique words come from are almost always heart-warming, and really showcase the family's connections with each other. If you show more aren't laughing out loud, you might be holding back tears, amazed by the sweetness and love in this family.

Audrey is so naive, yet so clever, and I found myself rooting for her, and being amazed by her funny thought-processes. Everything is so logical, but in such a nonsensical fashion. When you read the book, you'll understand what I mean.

Come, Thou Tortoise is about love, and family, and the relationships we create, but it isn't mushy or romantic - it is fun, bright, and heartwarming. Read it now! show less