Son of a Trickster
Ratings15
Average rating4
Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize: With striking originality and precision, Eden Robinson, the author of the classic Monkey Beach and winner of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Fellowship, blends humour with heartbreak in this compelling coming-of-age novel. Everyday teen existence meets indigenous beliefs, crazy family dynamics, and cannibalistic river otters . . . The exciting first novel in her trickster trilogy. Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby)--and now she's dead. Jared can't count on his mom to stay sober and stick around to take care of him. He can't rely on his dad to pay the bills and support his new wife and step-daughter. Jared is only sixteen but feels like he is the one who must stabilize his family's life, even look out for his elderly neighbours. But he struggles to keep everything afloat...and sometimes he blacks out. And he puzzles over why his maternal grandmother has never liked him, why she says he's the son of a trickster, that he isn't human. Mind you, ravens speak to him--even when he's not stoned. You think you know Jared, but you don't.
Series
Series
3 primary books#1 in Trickster
Trickster is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2009 with contributions by Eden Robinson and Rob Thurman.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
4.5 Harrowing, one of a kind, full of humour. I snickered (like Ernie) at the exchanges between Jared and Sarah.
When they start putting trigger warnings on books, this one will need several. There's a lot of raw unpleasantness here and honestly, for the first third of the book I felt like the author was trying to prove how “hard” she was. By the time I was finished, I appreciated the not nice-ness as necessary to the story and really got into the characters. But its prose is very sparse and I would have liked more in some places where this “less is more” philosophy seems to hamper my understanding of what's happening between the characters. Also, I would have liked more talking crows.
A big fat thank you to whatever publisher it was who sent me this free copy for review.
This was a fantastic, visceral coming of age story. Jared's struggle to deal with his family dysfunction and addiction issues was really heartfelt, and Robinson's witty, quick-paced dialogue keeps the story engaging throughout.
The magical realism parts took a backseat for most of the novel, and that actually suits the story really well. For most of the story it feels like a metaphor for Jared's experience, but by the end it unfolds into a more major theme. Robinson unveils it really well, and the way in which she does it makes the story incredibly enjoyable.
