by Jamie Zeppa ~ Knopf Canada ~ Review: Halifax Herald, April 17, 2011
There is a quality to Jamie Zeppa’s writing that aims directly at the reader. Her characters speak their hearts in a way that makes Every Time We Say Goodbye read a little like a memoir as it follows the story of the Turners, a complicated family living in Sault Ste. Marie.
Dawn and her brother Jimmy live with their grandparents, but their lives are changing. Their father and his new wife are finally coming for them, and Dawn absolutely and positively knows that this is Day One of her new beginning. Dreams do come true. Without a backward glance, she and her brother Jimmy drive off to become, in Dawn’s mind, the quintessential fairy tale family. But Dawn’s faith is a little shaken when it is takes longer than she anticipated, and after three months “it could still be considered the beginning.” She makes allowances. “Some beginnings (take) longer than others. It varied.”
Every Time We Say Goodbye moves through three generations of Turners, linking their lives, deceptions, dreams and mysteries. It pivots around Dawn’s father, Dean, the adopted son of Vera and Frank. It is the adoption that creates the underlying mystery of Zeppa’s novel. These are times when adoption was kept secret, unwanted pregnancies hidden and saving face to the neighbours was paramount.
Zeppa manages the shifting timelines seemingly without effort. The Turner’s story shifts between families and generations, a style that is sometimes difficult to pull off without jarring the reader. But Zeppa’s narrative flows, linking her characters and their stories as we are pulled deep into their lives, always pleased to pick up their story once again.
Zeppa took a long time to produce her first novel, almost 10 years. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait that long for her next one.
Jamie Zeppa teaches English at Seneca College. She won the Banff Mountain Book Festival Award for Adventure Travel Writing and the CBC Canadian Literary Award for Memoir. This is her first novel.
