Oct. 15, 2008 - Issue #678: It’s a Chad Chad Chad Chad World
Good to a Fault
Marina Endicott's second novel is just good, period
Not that Endicott, a professor at Camrose’s Augustana University who recently moved to Edmonton from Cochrane, is any stranger to acclaim: her debut novel Open Arms was shortlisted for the Books in Canada first novel award, and Fault has already won critical acclaim from numerous publications across the country.
The novel begins, quite literally, with a bang and a crash. Clara Purdy is a 43-year-old woman who lives alone in the house of her deceased mother in Saskatoon. While driving across town, Clara hits another car, and injures the mother of a family of three. At the hospital, the medical team discovers Lorraine, the mother, is gravely ill with an advanced form of cancer. Clara learns the family has been living in their car, and was travelling from Winnipeg to Fort McMurray, where they hoped to obtain employment and a better life. Heavy with guilt and responsibility, Clara opens her empty home to the family, and moves the three children, their father and their grandmother into her home. Clara is helped in her effort by her neighbours, extended family members and the priest at her church. As she takes in the family and intertwines their lives with her own, Clara discovers new meaning and a sense of purpose. Yet her motives are questioned by those around her, and by Lorraine and her family themselves.
Endicott’s writing is realistic, not unlike the writing of the now-deceased Canadian literary doyenne, Carol Shields, who wrote about “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Endicott writes in a style that easily encapsulates the minute details of everyday life. This novel takes an overarching look at the effects of every character’s actions, as the viewpoint switches between various characters, and allows the reader to get a glimpse of the thoughts of the core players in the story. Though it’s a domestic story, there is a sense of urgency to the narrative, and the reader is constantly waiting for the situation to change, and for a fragile situation to deteriorate. This sense of urgency is never lost, even when things appear to be stable. The story never seems resolved, until the final page of the novel.
Questions and themes of goodness and selfless responsibility make up the core theme of Good to a Fault. The overarching themes and questions raised by this book are what make it such a compelling read. The story subtly asks questions which force the reader to draw a line between selflessness and selfishness. How far should a person go for the sake of charity and human kindness? What does a person stand to lose by extending kindness to others?
Endicott’s book is one that asks questions of both the central characters and the reader. The novel doesn’t follow a typical pattern, and the story doesn’t focus on flourishes or fanfare, but around the subtle nuances of everyday life. This is a novel that delivers and treats its reader with kindness and goodness. Hopefully, the Giller committee will also be favourable to the book on awards night. V
Good to a Fault
By Marina Endicott
Freehand Books
376 PP, $25.95
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