|
It is rare that a first novel can actually capture the essence of an indigenous
people, but Eden Robinson's novel about a Haisla tribe from the Kitamaat region of the
Pacific Northwest does just that. MONKEY BEACH is an emotionally vivid map of a landscape
not well known to most of us. And it makes for some very compelling reading.
Lisamarie (named after Elvis's daughter) spends a difficult time in her life examining and
remembering the specifics of her life, the tomboyish antics of her youth, the danger that
lies ahead in her young adulthood. This is a time in which her brother --- who had taken
up a Haisla tradition and become a fisherman on the dangerous Douglas Channel --- is
presumed dead and is being searched for by her parents and family friends. The traditions
of the past and the contrivances of the present clash as she considers the culture from
which she has come.
MONKEY BEACH is emotionally fierce, a narrative that pulls you along like a swift river
current, forcing you into the heart and mind of each of the characters, asking you to
consider the different ways in which a family's ethnic culture can clash with the demands
and desires of the world at large, especially in the crazy contemporary climate of the
last 40 years. Robinson's voice is pure magic: Lisamarie is a remarkably able narrator,
allowing us into her heart and mind with the most elegant language, the most direct and
specific emotional recountings.
MONKEY BEACH is exactly what a first novel should be and so much more: Not only does it
introduce us to an able-bodied new writer, it also shows us that the novel, in and of
itself, is a malleable form, one that can be pushed into learning new tricks by avatars
who use their own personal experiences as a springboard to great literature.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
|
