Only when I finished the book and participated in a group discussion did the term come up to describe the story. I personally wouldn’t have described the book as magical realism, although technically that’s what it was (to me it was a lot more real than magical). When I read Monkey Beach, I did not anticipate any magical realism.Jared is a great character but not one with which I personally connect. I didn’t realize how much my enjoyment of Monkey Beach depended on Lisa until I started Son of a Trickster. Son of a Trickster stars teenage boy Jared, who differs greatly from Monkey Beach’s adult woman Lisa (what an astute observation, Jenna). I previously read and enjoyed Robinson’s Monkey Beach. Two things drew me to this book: Eden Robinson (Haisla First Nation author) + magical realism.My thoughts on Son of a Trickster mostly focus on the perils of basing expectations for one book on another book.I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Mind you, ravens speak to him–even when he’s not stoned. 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. But he struggles to keep everything afloat…and sometimes he blacks out.
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. He can’t rely on his dad to pay the bills and support his new wife and step-daughter. Jared can’t count on his mom to stay sober and stick around to take care of him. 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. 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.
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