Precocious young protagonist’s stories vivid

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/06/2017 (3334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Do not be fooled by this book’s brevity. The Discovery of Honey, author Terry Griggs’ newest work of fiction, has remarkable depth.

Griggs, who lives in Stratford, Ont., is the author of four novels, including Quickening, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award in 1991, as well as several children’s books.

Written as a series of connected stories that take place in a small northern Ontario town, The Discovery of Honey is packed full of vivid imagery, moving metaphors, precise prose, laugh-out-loud observations and sad essential truths.

Each one of the collection’s 13 stories is narrated by Hero, a precocious, unconventional, strong, smart and savvy child — and in some stories a teen — who sees and speaks words of wisdom far beyond her age.

In fact, Hero is so prescient that the very first story she tells takes place before she is even born. It is on that day, which turns out to be the day of her conception, that an unruly gust of wind upends her parents’ outdoor wedding, wreaking havoc on the venue, the guests and the newlyweds, and setting the tone for all the mishaps, misfortune and misunderstandings to come.

Owing to the circumstances of her conception and birth — and the resulting inattentiveness of her parents — Hero learns from an early age that she must fend for herself. She is undisciplined, wild and watchful and also brutally honest and funny.

But beneath her whimsy lies terrible hurt.

Hero’s life is marred by dysfunction, abandonment, poverty, neglect and boredom. Stranded among gossiping relatives, nosy neighbours and small-town scandal, she is constantly on the lookout for love and stability, attention and adventure.

She spends much of her time missing and then avoiding her self-absorbed mother, who “could whip up a batch of shame faster than most mothers can make a cake,” and running after her delinquent older cousin Nile, “who haunted the edges of everything.”

At other times she plays detective, fights with her best friend, hides among the library stacks and dreams of law school and escape.

And yet, Hero describes everywhere she goes, everything she does and everyone she encounters with such precision and wit that she makes it seem that her life, in spite of all the odds stacked against her, might just turn out OK.

Hero is not particularly kind or thoughtful or generous, but because Griggs has made her so smart, funny and observant, she is a hero worthy of readers’ consideration.

Sharon Chisvin is a Winnipeg writer.