Stolen By Annette Lapointe
Posted: 21 Sep 2013, 14:06
The promised pastoral bliss of the Canadian prairies and the simmering mess of reality beneath it, are on vivid display in this award-winning debut novel (Saskatchewan Book Awards, 2006, etc.) by LaPointe.
Rowan Friesen, only 26, has already buried one man and driven another crazy by the time the novel opens. Rowan, a man who makes his living selling meth and stealing items to fence on Ebay, lives, literally and figuratively, on the borderlands of society, alone and without roots. He is continuously surrounded by the memories of his troubled childhood, which is littered with frequent moves, sexual abuse and abandonment, first by a schizophrenic father, then later by his mother. He commits terrible, although not unspeakable, acts and yet Lapointe has found a way to make him not just relatable, but likable, without eliciting the reader’s pity. Stolen is, on one level a mystery; where’d his dad go and whose body was that anyway? On a deeper level, however, it’s a story of a man who is adrift in the spaces in-between, equally uneasy anywhere. There are no easy answers here, no higher moral truths, and certainly no happy endings. Rowen is left as he began, with possibly insurmountable problems, but also with insight into why he is as he is and a greater sense of peace. It is not, of course, a perfect novel. Some scenes appear flat and forced, too transparent in their attempt to force the narrative forward. Nor does Lapointe convincingly explore Rowen’s sexuality, which is treated as unremarkable in its impact on his outlook and relationship with the rural community in which he lives. Still, this is the rare novel that leaves you grateful for its flaws, which serve to emphasize its point, that we are all flawed and messy creatures. Those looking for similar novels would do well to read The Way The Crow Flies by Anne Marie MacDonald, Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, or, for the young adults among you, Dare, by Marilyn Halvorson.
This is an author to watch and a story to contemplate long after you’ve finished reading it.
Rowan Friesen, only 26, has already buried one man and driven another crazy by the time the novel opens. Rowan, a man who makes his living selling meth and stealing items to fence on Ebay, lives, literally and figuratively, on the borderlands of society, alone and without roots. He is continuously surrounded by the memories of his troubled childhood, which is littered with frequent moves, sexual abuse and abandonment, first by a schizophrenic father, then later by his mother. He commits terrible, although not unspeakable, acts and yet Lapointe has found a way to make him not just relatable, but likable, without eliciting the reader’s pity. Stolen is, on one level a mystery; where’d his dad go and whose body was that anyway? On a deeper level, however, it’s a story of a man who is adrift in the spaces in-between, equally uneasy anywhere. There are no easy answers here, no higher moral truths, and certainly no happy endings. Rowen is left as he began, with possibly insurmountable problems, but also with insight into why he is as he is and a greater sense of peace. It is not, of course, a perfect novel. Some scenes appear flat and forced, too transparent in their attempt to force the narrative forward. Nor does Lapointe convincingly explore Rowen’s sexuality, which is treated as unremarkable in its impact on his outlook and relationship with the rural community in which he lives. Still, this is the rare novel that leaves you grateful for its flaws, which serve to emphasize its point, that we are all flawed and messy creatures. Those looking for similar novels would do well to read The Way The Crow Flies by Anne Marie MacDonald, Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, or, for the young adults among you, Dare, by Marilyn Halvorson.
This is an author to watch and a story to contemplate long after you’ve finished reading it.