Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Eddy, Eddy by Kate de Goldi.

 

  

          Teenager Eddy Smallbone, orphan, lives with his uncle Brian (unkindly called Brain by Eddy, for Brian’s absurdly knowledgeable vocabulary) in Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island city of Christchurch.  Christchurch has recently been devastated by a huge earthquake which reduced the city to ruins and killed 185 people:  recovery of any kind will be a long-term process, and Eddy is not doing so well at it.  He hates his life with middle-aged bachelor Brain, despite Brain legally adopting him so that he wouldn’t be lost to the family, thereby changing Brain’s life plans irrevocably;  he hates the Catholic secondary school he attends and manages to get himself expelled after organising a ‘survey’ proving (he said) that two thirds of the school’s pupils didn’t believe in God.

            Yes, Eddy is an angry young man, and his attempts to make sense of his life so far are causing distress to the people who love him the most – Brain, and Brain’s eclectic and ‘catholic’ variety of friends, which include a disgraced Catholic priest, an atheist union organiser and Eddy’s godmother Bridgie, proud lesbian companion to the atheist – and, as much as all these loving, well-meaning people irritate him, they are the only constants in a life which seems to have little purpose – unless he finds one.

            And that is what this marvellous story is about:  Eddy’s attempts to carve out a different future for himself, beginning with a pet-minding business that he starts through word-of-mouth advertising that inadvertently turns into minding the children of the pets of one particular harried and divorcing family as well.  He is surprised to find that he has some success at it, having a natural affinity for animals which seems to go down well with the kids, too, especially when they meet Mother, a male cockatoo belonging to a nun (!) called Sue who has just had a hip replacement.  BUT!  The very best thing to happen is the return of his beloved ex-girlfriend Roberta – but for how long?

            For Eddy has more than family and religious problems to contend with, if he can’t face up to the fate of his very best friend.

            Kate de Goldi is queen of the marvellous metaphor and a superb writer, marshalling her dazzling array of characters with great humour and wit. Her skilled and beautiful language  describes the ruination of a city, its cautious renaissance, then the return of that most elusive of feelings:  hope – for all.  SIX STARS.