Son of a Trickster

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


*** Possible spoilers ***

I'm being generous. I figure this book was worth 1.4 stars and I still rounded up. The first two-thirds of the book were painful to read. Then, as the supernatural events began, things improved considerably. Had I stopped reading there I might actually have awarded this 3 stars but then I came to the ending - or, perhaps, more accurately, the cessation of writing and I dropped my rating considerably.

The main character, Jared, is quite interesting. That's about the only good thing in the book. He's very sarcastic but that's okay. Unfortunately he's surrounded entirely by losers. Is the author truly asking us to believe that EVERY individual in a small northern town is a drug-addled, alcohol-soaked lunatic? It appears that such is the case. I haven't had experience with living in the north, nor have I ever lived in a small town so I don't know what the situation is like, but this book does not provide much incentive to travel to those places.

In this story Jared is aboriginal as are many of the supporting characters. In addition there are a number of individuals who are white. Ms. Robinson doesn't play favorites. Everyone is a loser. Everyone uses drugs. Everyone gets drunk - or is a recovering alcoholic. One can understand after reading this novel why the suicide rate is so high among certain segments of the population.

Jared is the son of a supernatural power - deity or demon is hard to say. He is the son of a Trickster and he sees things that others don't see. The world of the supernatural is not a pleasant one and those that inhabit it want nothing more than to kill humans - preferably by eating them. By the time the book ended I was beginning to hope they might be successful.

This is supposed to be a YA novel. I'm not sure why Ms. Robinson hates young people but from the nihilistic tone of the book I rather think she does. She certainly tries her best to depress the reader although I suspect that many young readers would become sufficiently bored by the first half of the book that they'd never make it to the end. I read it largely out of a certain stubborn unwillingness to abandon a book part way but perhaps I was mistaken and wasted too much of my time. Still there is a section in the story that worked and worked well. It wasn't a truly large section and both the before and after were awful but there was a small diamond among the coal.

Son of a Trickster was on the short-list for 2017 Giller Award thereby demonstrating that quite a few people liked it. I wasn't one of them. I'm not sure what it was that appealed to the selection committee although I have to concede that it was a well-crafted narrative - depressing perhaps and thoroughly nihilistic; but technically sound and well-written. Maybe that is sufficient.

I would not recommend this to any young person. Frankly I would not recommend it to anyone; however, for those who like to imagine that indigenous people are close to nature and to mysticism then possibly they might give it a try.



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