by Elizabeth KellyNew Face of Fiction Series
Knopf Canada
~ Review in Halifax Herald, April 2009
Collie is a Flanagan, born into a Massachusetts family endowed with old money and alcoholism. His budding conservatism becomes “a family occupation” and his decision to study liberal arts causes a family crisis of no mean proportions. His mother’s self-obsessive penchant for the dramatic rules the family with a rod of iron. Her favouritism for Bingo, her youngest son and her corresponding contempt for sensible Collie affect him profoundly. “I may have given up trying to win her affection, but I still feared her wrath.”
Couple this with a dilettante father, an alcoholic uncle and a media baron grandfather and the two boys’ parenting is perfunctory at best. This is family dysfunction extraordinaire! But a terrible accident disrupts their lives, and Collie needs to somehow come to terms with not only this shocking event, but with his family, such as it is.
Elizabeth Kelly’s first novel is funny and hip. The story starts slowly, and occasionally her characters seem to flounder in the maelstrom of dysfunction in which they live. Which perhaps is perfectly understandable! Collie’s narration matures as he lurches toward wisdom, searching for the understanding that will make sense of his life.
Elizabeth Kelly is an award winning journalist and magazine editor. She lives in a small eastern Ontario village. This is her first novel.
