Good to a Fault

by Marina Endicott
Published by Freehand Books
  ~ Review in Halifax Herald, December 2008

Clara Purdy understands liability. She works in insurance. Her life is ordinary, defined by her job, her neat bungalow and her mother, whose voice reaches from the grave to direct her disappointed, middle aged life. But one day, in dreamy unfocussed moment, she causes an accident and a family of six spills from their wrecked car into her life. This is a family on the move, and without a car they are abruptly homeless. Injuries are minor, but in hospital the mother, Lorraine, is diagnosed with advanced cancer.

Understanding somewhere in her consciousness there is no one else to help, Clara takes them in. “She was surprised at herself and again thought that she was doing the right thing ....” When Lorraine’s husband takes off for places unknown, Clara becomes custodian of three children and a vitriolic mother in law. Her neat bungalow hovers on the edge of chaos as she scrambles to establish a routine of meals, baths, bedtimes and hospital visits.

Days turn into weeks. Then months. The children thrive, she thrives and Lorraine watches uneasily from her hospital bed. Her children reach Clara’s disappointed heart and she begins to take ownership of the small, needy family. The older children go to school. Clara comforts the baby, “his neck warm against [her face]. Mine, she thought.” The slippery slope to appropriation gets easier as Lorraine’s health declines.

It is Lorraine, desperately ill, uneducated and homeless who understands the implications of this every burgeoning, unpayable debt. Endicott is masterful as we watch this burden and the balance of repayment shift back and forth between the two women. She writes about guilt and love and pain with such quiet movement forward that we are drawn completely into her characters lives. We see the untidy imperfections of people just trying their best.

True to her theatrical roots, Endicott allows her characters to live and breath, building a slow tension as they pull us in. And she doesn’t let us off the hook either. She writes with unshrinking clarity about things we would sooner run away from, and of the joy it brings to our souls when we do not. Behind the easy succinctness of her prose is an intelligent awareness of the big questions which linger long after the last page is turned. Easy to understand why Good to a Fault was shortlisted for this year’s Giller Prize.

Marina Endicott was born in British Colombia and worked as an actor and director before writing fiction. She lives in Alberta.