Book Reviews

Time Travels Convincing

Lois Donovan (Author)
Winds of L'Acadie. Ronsdale Press
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Claire Carmichael (Author)
Leaving Simplicity. Annick Press
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Reviewed by J. R. Wytenbroek

Historical fiction can be dull, but if well-written, it entices readers into the past, bringing it alive and helping them feel they are actually there. Futuristic science fiction, on the other hand, is expected to be exciting, and it takes some effort to make it dull. Making it believable, however, is a different matter.

Lois Donovan’s Winds of L’Acadie involves a very modern, rather spoiled city girl who is blown back into the 1700’s in Acadia, just before the deportation of the Acadians, one of the bleakest chapters of Canadian history. Forced to be interested in someone other than herself for the first time in her sixteen years, she finds herself caring deeply for the Acadian family who take her in when she is completely confused and disoriented by her time-traveling experience. Sarah works desperately to save the family from the deportation with the help of the young man from her present whom she treated so badly when she first arrived in Nova Scotia.

The questions that arise are whether the changes in the initially unlikable Sarah are believable and do the readers come to care enough about Sarah’s adopted Acadian family to make them want to find out what happens to them. Donovan pulls both off very well. The spoiled city girl changes convincingly into someone utterly committed to trying to save her adopted family through a gradual and realistic process. The family itself is so likeable and so real that most readers will care about saving them every bit as much as Sarah does by the time the deportation begins. The themes of love and friendship, belonging, and the cruelty of prejudice and hatred are worked nicely through the characters, their interaction, and the historical situation. Readers may well leave the book wondering what happened to the families that were so widely dispersed by the deportation and, by extension, wonder about the lives of those being displaced due to hatred and prejudice today. The book is powerful and thought-provoking while leaving the reader longing for more—high praise indeed for a young adult historical novel, surely the most difficult of all genres for that age-group.

Carmichael’s Leaving Simplicity has few of the obstacles to deal with that Winds has. Science fiction is a popular genre with young people, and even mediocre science fiction can do well. However, Simplicity is definitely not mediocre. It also involves another spoiled city girl, but her transformation is effected not by the past but by a cousin who may as well be from the past. In this near-future novel, the world is inundated with advertising. Even classroom desks are supplied by corporate sponsors whose ads run in holographic form over the desks. Teachers wear t-shirts announcing which company is sponsoring the lesson for the day and billboard ads are designed to broadcast directly into each passing vehicle. It takes very little effort to imagine such a world, given the state of advertising in our society today. But Taylor’s cousin Barrett is from the country, in fact from a community based on the principles of simple living, completely cut off from the consumer-driven, high-speed and endlessly chattering world that Taylor lives in. The contrast between the two, and Barrett’s complete culture shock when suddenly immersed in Taylor’s world, are well-drawn. When the two are caught up in a plot to use them both as guinea-pigs by big corporations, and have to expose the plot just to save their own lives, most readers will care what happens to them.

The plot is fast-paced and exciting. Both characters are, surprisingly, quite believable, as both are based on templates we see every day in the “real” world. Taylor, like Sarah, is used only to the best, fastest, and latest. She is appropriately appalled at the thought of showing her “farmie” cousin around the school, and mortified at the thought of her friends meeting him. She is manipulative and demanding, yet her gradual transformation into a critic of her own society is convincing. Barrett’s shell shock when propelled without warning from his quiet and thoughtful albeit insular life at Simplicity into the endlessly noisy, sensory-overloaded world of the corporate-driven city is also convincing. He learns a lot but, unlike Taylor, he is not transformed by his experiences. Instead he becomes the force of transformation for others, refusing to compromise his principles. Absolutely firm in his beliefs and values, he becomes the rock upon which the illegal and immoral get-rich-quick schemes of his power-hungry aunt Kara and her even more greedy and scheming friend, Senator Rox, crash and sink.

Thematically, the book is rich and complex, tackling everything from the pharmaceuticals’ callous disregard for the AIDS epidemic in under-privileged countries (here transformed into the Q-plague) to the powerful control corporations have today on every aspect of our society, and their voice of manipulation, the advertising industry. With its corporate sponsorship even of individual classes, the novel is clearly a satire on our world today. It is a little heavy-handed, however, even didactic in places, which undercuts its power somewhat. There is also a flaw in the plot near the end which may leave readers scratching their heads. However, as a way to get young people to think about the influences of corporations and advertising on every aspect of their lives, it is excellent, and could readily be used by teachers and parents alike who wish to challenge young people to think.

Both Winds and Simplicity are excellent books to challenge and involve young adult readers. With exciting plots, convincing characters and strong themes, both are great examples of the high quality fiction written by Canadian authors for young people today.

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This review originally appeared in Canadian Literature #198 (Autumn 2008), Marie Clements. (pg. 124 - 126)

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