Author Origin: Haisla First Nation, BC
Page Count: 316
Genre: Fiction/YA
Difficulty: Easy-ish
Grade Level: 10+
Key Talking Points: First Nations culture, family relationships, identity
Sensitive Subject Matter: Drug use, alcoholism, sexuality
Warning: This book is full of sass, drugs, and magic. Probably in that order.
This is another Festival of Literary Diversity find, and I can't stress enough how happy I am to have Eden Robinson in my reading life. If you've ever heard Robinson speak, I'm sure you'd agree that her laugh is one of her most defining features. Her laugh fills her up and spills out into the space around her until the walls themselves are rumbling. That laugh echoes through her writing. All through Son of a Trickster, I found myself giggling, snorting, and laughing, often overcome by a strong urge to read the ridiculous line out loud to let those around me in on the fun. However, the novel isn't exactly a comedy; Robinson writes with a sass and wit that is just awkward enough to make you believe that it is real, that the characters could actually be saying and thinking these things. Not fake, sitcom, scripted funny; this is real life funny. Sad and pathetic funny.
Summary: Jared is a grade 10 who lives off the rez with his mother. She is a little too protective, a little too aggressive, and a little too in his personal space for the teen to be completely comfortable with. He cares about school, despite being high or drunk pretty consistently. He loves his crazy mom, supports his down-and-out divorcee dad, and even does chores for the cute little old couple down the street. When a new and quirky girl enters his life, things seem to be going all right. Jared is holding all the strings of his life together in a delicate balance that he only feels somewhat depressed about. That is, until ravens start to talk and old women have monsters under their skin. This is the first book in a series, so while it does wrap up fairly nicely, there is definitely not an end.
The majority of the book is really just the ins and outs of life for Jared. He is coming of age as best he can in a life that resembles chaos stuffed into a Sunday suit; a family trying to be loving and kind in the ways they know how, even if those ways are not conventional. Little things happen that will later have significance, but a lot of things happen that also don't seem to have any purpose except that they happen to Jared. This is actually fine because even without a clear reason for reading them, they are just so darn endearing and entertaining it doesn't even matter. Once the real conflict starts to bubble around closer to the end of the book, things get strange. However, there have been enough hints of the magic underlying the story from the beginning that the transition is practically seamless. Bam! Suddenly there are swarms of singing fireflies and voyeuristic ape men stalking Jared. The reader thinks "huh, neat." And then there are ambushes by cannibalistic river otters and the reader nods sagely and thinks "that was the natural next step." etc. etc. Robinson makes it work and makes you snicker all the while.
The entwining of First Nations beliefs and legends throughout the narrative is really beautifully done. Robinson has little forays and digressions mixed in with the main narrative that weave complimentary lore into Jared's story to help us understand the foundation of his character and to ground us in the world of the text. For example, the second chapter, called "Simultaneousity" begins with: "Think of magic as a tree. The root of supernatural ability is simply the realization that all time exists simultaneously. Humans experience time as a progression of sequential events in much the same way we see the horizon as flat: our reality is shaped by our limitations" (Robinson 15). This identifying of our limitations early on allows us to roll with some of the more out-there occurrences later in the book in the way mentioned above.
Teacher Note: While this novel has a lot of interesting avenues for discussion surrounding identity and family history, there is an abundance of creative cursing and a healthy dose of underage drinking and illegal drug use. It works with the characters and the world in the text, but you should know that it is there. There is a little sexuality, but described in a fairly PG way, nothing a grade 10 or up hasn't seen or heard before. Most students would probably be able to relate to Jared in one way or another, although we'd hope not in the illegal ways.
Final Thought: This one tickled me in all the right, if slightly inappropriate places; a quirky, ill-mannered, enchanting read.
📚 Ms. CAN Lit
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