When I choose a book with difficult subject matter filled with war, illness or child abuse, I steel myself for what will inevitably be a difficult read.
Sometimes I admit to passing over subject matter when I want to escape from certain realities. So, when I saw the blurb of Eden Robinson’s latest novel, Son of a Trickster, I wasn’t sure about reading it.
Although it has been more than 15 years since I read her book Monkey Beach, I hadn’t forgotten the despair, and the unrelenting grimness portrayed in the book. It seemed as though Son of a Trickster was going to focus on similar issues of small town B.C., despairing adolescents, dysfunctional families, poverty and misery.
Nonetheless, I also couldn’t forget Robinson’s vivid writing, her depictions of the Northwest coast, and her uncannily accurate character portrayals, which have stuck with me. After all, Robinson, of Haisla/Heiltsuk origin, is one of Canada’s best writers, having been nominated for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award.
So, I relented. And, I couldn’t be happier. Although some critics have called Son of a Trickster uneven and at times messy, I think it’s brilliant. Robinson takes her difficult subject matter and adds the perfect dose of macabre humour, originality and lightness of tone.
Jared lives in the basement of his drunken, crazy mother’s Kitimat home. One day a local drug dealer sics a pack of pitbulls on Jared, who sells pot cookies at the local high school. Just as one of the dog’s jaws are about to sink into Jared, his mother roars up in a pickup truck and runs it over. Backing over the dog’s head to make sure it’s dead, she leans out the window: “Kindly leave my boy alone.”
Turns out the drug dealer is impressed, and moves in with Jared and his mom shortly afterwards.
This is obviously the typical violent and dysfunctional world of a Robinson novel, but from the first pages, you can tell something is different. Son of a Trickster is heart wrenching, but not bleak. In fact, by the final section of the book, it gets downright whacky.
If you’re a fan of books by authors like Neil Gaiman and Haruki Mirakami, you won’t be thrown off by the whacky deviation from reality. I don’t want to reveal any secrets, but suffice it to say that the title Son of a Trickster contains much truth.
Son of a Trickster is the first of Robinson’s Trickster trilogy. I haven’t a clue where Robinson will take this story next, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait.
Heather Allen is the book columnist for the Penticton Western News