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Canadian Authors - General fiction - |
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Then Again |
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 Then Again byElyse Friedman Random House (Vintage Canada) 190 Pages, September 2000 ISBN 0679310681 Reviewed by Zaheera Jiwaji Nominated for the 1999 Trillium Book Award. Imagine that your wealthy brother invites you and your sister to return to your childhood home for a nostalgic weekend. Once you are there, you discover that your brother has refurbished the house exactly how it was twenty years ago. Even the trees in the front yard are the same height they were in the 1970s. What's more - your eccentric brother has hired two actors who resemble your dead parents to make the weekend even more bizarre. This is what happens to Michelle Schafer when her brother Joel invites her and her sister Marla to return to their Toronto childhood home. Joel, a Hollywood screenwriter, has accumulated far too much wealth writing "soulless blockbusters". Yet, happiness eludes him, and he fashions this elaborate charade to return to the place he was last happy. Paradoxically, the reader learns that the Schafer home was far from a happy place. Their father, who never recovered from the trauma of the Holocaust, terrified the children with his drunken episodes, while their mother retreated to a dark bedroom. Elyse Friedman has written a fascinating novel, which in turn alarms, delights and leaves the reader breathless for more. It is often laugh-out-loud funny and marvelously witty, but also fierce and edgy. The main character Michelle narrates the text, ricocheting between the past and the present. We learn of her leaving home, meeting the love of her life, and the death of her mother. Surprising and bold, Friedman weaves passages expertly, coaxing us to ride along as we careen towards an explosive end. Keep an eye out for more from this refreshing new Canadian voice. |
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