BOOK REVIEW: Elizabeth And After by Matt Cohen

[avanta7]

Winner of Canada's prestigious Governor-General's Award, this is an incredibly intricate novel about a small town and its people. West Gull is in Ontario but could be anywhere in the world where small towns survive. Protagonist Carl McKelvey, who is reminiscent of Richard Russo's characters, particularly Sam Hall in The Risk Pool, returns to West Gull for reasons seemingly unknown to him and others in town. In West Gull, Carl had left an ex-wife and a daughter, a dead mother, an old father, and a reputation as a violent drunk. Hoping to rebuild his life, he reestablishes contact with his seven-year-old daughter, Lizzie, but finds that the memory of his mother, Elizabeth, who touched everyone in town to some degree and who died in a car crash when Carl was at the wheel, is a strong impediment. Now, Carl must put that memory and guilt to rest before moving on. Cohen's novel is packed with humor, desperation, and romance. (Library Journal)

A marvelous jewel of a novel, spare and beautiful and haunting and lush. Carl's efforts to rebuild his life and be a parent to his daughter are presented without filter, with all the joints and seams and ugly places exposed. A very human story, well worth reading. Highly recommended.