By Marisa Iacobucci
Some people buy a sports car when they hit a mid-life crisis. Forty-something Clara Purdy hits a car and, by default, buys herself a family. Clara, an insurance agent, knows she is at fault when she crashes into the Gage family vehicle. Lucky for her, the family (parents, two kids, baby, grandmother) emerge unscathed from the accident. But when Clara discovers that the family has been living in the car and that the young mother, Lorraine, is ill, the reader is forced to decide whether Clara takes her liability too far when she offers to take in the homeless family.
Call her guilty; call her crazy. Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault calls her main character good to a fault in this, her second novel. Also, and as far as praises go, it’s not surprising that this tender and stirring tale of love, tragedy, and all the damages in between was a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist. From start to finish, this story is brutally honest and compelling. Whether it’s the way Endicott barges right in to Clara’s quiet, childless, and ordinary suburban life with an instant family of mostly likeable characters, one more interesting and complex than the other, or the way she brings humour, poetry, and suspense to every page in unpredictable ways, this novel grabbed me, taking me from one sharp turn to the next. And, all this in Saskatoon.
I couldn’t help getting deeply lost and politically involved in the crossroads of the characters’ storylines as I found myself observing and judging at every intersection. As tragedy touches all of the characters and turns them upside down and around, it urged me to change right along with the fragile lot of them and — the most difficult part — to face some of my own demons. I couldn’t forgive the dad, Clayton, for treating his family horribly. As much as I cheered on Clara’s enormous act of charity, I admit to wondering if she did it more as a bid to save herself, whether, as one busybody parishioner shockingly accused, she was being selfish. I was forced to take sides between Lorraine and Clara, two strong main characters from different worlds, both impossible not to love. As Lorraine fought for her life, did the overwhelming debt of gratitude she felt towards Clara rightfully come with an enormous cost? I dare not say.
Good to a Fault's astute social observations on love, loss, and tragedy told through the lens of her perfectly imperfect characters were conversations begging to be recounted. Endicott handles these overwhelming themes in the most delicate of ways — using time, changing rhythms, and laughter (a lot of the latter). The only thing I found difficult to do while following Endicott’s family of strangers was to hold my applause to the very end. I’d dress up, but I’d stay in for this one. This drama of life holds some of the best theatre I’ve ever seen in a book.
Marisa Iacobucci is a freelance writer who will always choose the book over the movie.
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