Little Sister by Barbara Gowdy

Little Sister is by Canadian writer Barbara Gowdy, who has been repeatedly nominated for every major Canadian book prize, including the Giller, the Man Booker, the Governor Generals Award, and was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2006.

Rose Bowen runs the Regal Repertory Theatre in Midtown Toronto, with her mother Fiona, and Lloyd, their handyman. Fiona causes Rose continued worry with her bouts of dementia; forgetting where the cash drawers went or standing at the concession naked. Rose has been dating Vince, a meteorologist, which comes in handy when predicting oncoming weather systems - for when a thunderstorm rolls through the city, Rose not only becomes disoriented and weak, she enters the body of another woman. Sometimes Harriet is having sex in her married boyfriend's car, or Rose watches through Harriet's eyes as she works in a local publishing house. Rose finds out the office actually exists, and Harriet does work there, alongside the boyfriend, just as Rose has seen. When Rose/Harriet looks into a mirror, Rose is struck by the similarity of Harriet's eyes to those of her sister Ava, who died as a child, and there is another plot as Rose remembers her youth. Tracking Harriet down, Rose encounters her friends and co-workers, discovers Harriet is pregnant, experiences deja vu when covering Harriet's trail, and attempts to arrive in the same place at the same time - will she then see herself through Harriet's eyes? Who will Rose be when this happens? The prediction is for thunderstorms all week.

Barbara Gowdy draws on magic realism in her novels, combining fantasy and reality (The White Bone is written from the perspective of African elephants). This is a captivating story, which sort of resolves, but not to my liking. Entering the body of another person, finding out it wasn't a delusion but the person in reality is alive and in the same city, I would think be an event you would completely pursue. For me, this just rolled to a finish I found disappointing after the build up. Well written in an effortless and insightful way, but ultimately lost momentum for me.

A side note as a reader: although my copy was produced by major publisher Harper Perennial/Harper Collins, there is an annoying occurrence scattered through the book of condensing sentences (in order to justify the words on the page?). The words are too close and tend to run together, such as: "YoupretendedaboutGordon'sbrains," and "onTuesday,twentypercentWednesday.ClearonThursday." Perhaps not a big deal, but jarring for the reader. Doesn'tthisbotheryouaswell?

Yes, I also complain about typos in books printed back in the 1940's, it's my thing.

2017 / Tradeback / 301 pages