Come, Thou Tortoise (Jessica Grant)

What an adorable story. And adorable not in the sense ‘Awe how cute that she has a tortoise and the tortoise is also a narrator (only about 5% of the book but still), But cute in a way that she is a 24 year old woman (but kind like a 6 year old who since she was born on a leap year and also has a below average IQ she is not dissimilar to that of a child) but we don’t really know that until the middle and at that point it was just encased in a memory Audrey has of her and her father.

The innocence and sincerity along with her vulnerability makes it such a bittersweet read. You see the world through her eyes and how fascinating it is and how easily it can be mixed up. There’s a lot of wordplay that keeps the reader on her toes.  I love Audrey and can relate to her love for her father. His presence in the book is only known from Audrey’s memories since from the very beginning he is in a coma.  It opens with Audrey flying back  to Canada (her childhood home) from Oregon where she had since moved. She leaves her tortoise, Winnifred, with friends and travels with hope to give a speech to her dad believing that if she were to talk to him from her heart at his bedside it would make him wake up. Unfortunately (and this is all within the first pages) he has died and she is then left with her old house (with the door only being opened with a Northwest Shove, her uncle Thoby who had lived with him, and her old mouse Wedge that she believes has been alive for 20 years since she first got him as a pet. (Her dad was a scientist specializing in making life last forever so she believes that the mouse has longevity).

The novel unfolds in short chapters flowing back and forth between when she was a child to the present time as she comes to cope with the loss of her father and also the search for her mouse that has gone missing and a tandem search for her uncle who also goes missing.  There is a little love story too but I won’t give that away.  I love how the story is slightly off beat. Point A does not necessarily connect directly to point B and that makes it charming. But it’s not so off track that you get lost. Grant knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote the book. Also note that it might take getting used to the style because there are no quotation marks and also no question marks. The writing is beautiful. You know exactly how each sentence is to be inferred. And the wordplay will make language junkies giggle.

And if you want to read it but can't find it in the library just let me know, I have a copy.  It’s Canadian and has won the Glob&Mail Best Book Award!!