Canada's online magazine: Politics, entertainment, technology, media, arts, books: backofthebook.ca

Politics, tech, media, culture and more, from a Canadian point-of-view

  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Science and Tech
  • Living
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
You are here: Home / Arts and Books / Trailer Park Girl

Trailer Park Girl

01/21/2007 by backofthebook.ca Leave a Comment

Review by Catherine Nutter


Tanya Chapman’s debut novel, King (Coach House Press, 224 pp., $21.95), is a coming of age story as gritty as diamond dust. Chapman’s hard-drinking characters are wildflowers, gracing the liminal space between trailer park and open road. Small but shining jewels of truth are revealed in the smoky beer-funk of a run down cowboy bar, small town thrift store, mobile home love nest.

The novel’s pages are populated with a small crew of dysfunctional individuals. Like their temporarily located trailer homes, these characters exist on the threshold of society, with a swamp of drunken self-indulgence and missed opportunity on one side, and the open road of redemption and second chances on the other.

Chapman, a graduate of UBC’s creative writing program, invites readers to examine the best and the worst of human nature in her strangely charming chronicle. The legacy of alcoholism and abuse is at the root of her characters’ booze-drenched behaviour.

From Sissy, who was “not quite right” from the get-go, because her mother was dosed on acid when Sissy was born, to the novel’s namesake, King, who creates an elaborate persona in order to conceal his self-loathing and abusive upbringing, these are folks who careen through life looking for any temporary shelter from their own internal storm.

Chapman’s main character, Hazel, is a young woman whose own legacy of broken-ness has her plunging into increasingly desperate avoidance strategies in order to cope. Glimpses into her past reveal a fragmented reality of family breakdown and desperation. As a result, Hazel has splintered into two different people: the honour roll student and the teenage slut. Her growing tendency to dissociate, both intentionally through consumption of massive amounts of alcohol, and unintentionally — Hazel “loses time” and finds herself disoriented and confused — reaches a crisis point.

Hazel abandons her old identity (Hazel is not her real name), jumps into her ’71 Duster, and comes to rest, temporarily, in the Evening and Morning Star Trailer Park. There she meets King, the regal ruler of motorcycle repair; patriarch of broken things. Also a good-looking bad boy, King’s stock in trade is his ability to be what other people want him to be.

Hazel falls in love with her version of King, a hard-loving, hard-drinking funster. He becomes her entire reason for living, and is the only person who can drink more than her. “Drinking takes diligence, concentration, and daily training,” she tells us, “not to mention the constitution of a Spartan soldier.”

This plunge into the bottle, and submersion into the troubled waters of King, provides Hazel with temporary peace. She discovers the joys of liquid eyeliner, army boots, and earning a living, along with increasing her eccentric and decidedly floral wardrobe while working part time at a thrift store.

Chapman’s passion for balance and binary opposites becomes evident with the introduction of Egg, a nerdy, college-attending, teetotalling good-boy, whose pant cuffs are stapled up in order to fit his short legs. Egg is King’s opposite; his lack of swagger and sex appeal is rivaled only by his saintly benevolence to Hazel. Inevitably, Hazel’s idealized version of King begins to give way. His stint in jail, disastrous attempt at a come-back gig for his de-funked rock band, and increasing absences in the company of at least one other woman leave Hazel seeing King with new eyes.

Hazel realizes her love for King can never compensate for the self-love that he lacks. Hazel’s epiphany arrives when she realizes that she doesn’t need to continue living in fear. She will never be able to fix the patriarch of broken things. She will, however, just possibly be able to fix herself.

The truth is, we all have wounds and broken-ness. And we all have the opportunity to heal, and make our future a better place than our past. In King, Tanya Chapman offers readers the most potent pick-me-up of all: hope.

Filed Under: Arts and Books Tagged With: books, Coach House Press

Subscribe to BoB by e-mail or RSS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Google+
  • Living
  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
Fire sale sign

Fort McMurray: Shopping time!

By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its … [Read More...]

Nathan Cullen

Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking

By Alison@Creekside The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, … [Read More...]

Trudeau on quantum computing

The Trudeau gush fest is getting old

By Jim Henshaw There have been several bewildered as well as angry accounts coming out of the USA lately about how little media time has been spent covering the Democratic Presidential Primary … [Read More...]

Rick Meyers in Nanaimo Pride Parade

My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade

By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don't want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, … [Read More...]

Stephen Colbert on Late Night set

Triumph of the drama nerds

By Frank Moher Two drama nerds have recently moved into high profile positions. Before I name them (or perhaps you’ve already guessed who they are; or perhaps you’d like to scroll down and look at … [Read More...]

From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon

Originally published on Our Rape Blog, the author's account of the aftermath of a violent sexual assault. By Mary Fraughton Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, … [Read More...]

First Nations defending Lelu Island

The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary -- Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malaysian … [Read More...]

Google

Follow Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

RSS CBC News



Recent Posts

  • Fort McMurray: Shopping time!
  • From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon
  • Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking
  • The fish hotel
  • Hatred on an Alberta golf course
  • The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”
  • My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade
  • Our selective sympathy
  • The Water Bomber, The Frogman and The Great Canadian Novelist
  • Komagata Maru: The story behind the apology

Tags

9/11 Afghanistan Alberta bad behaviour books British Columbia business Canada Canadian military Canadian politics CBC celebrity computers Conservatives crime environment family film G20 Globe and Mail internet Jason Kenney journalism Justin Trudeau law Liberals Maclean's music National Post NDP newspapers oil sands online media Ontario Quebec RCMP religion sports Stephen Harper television theatre Toronto U.S. Vancouver women

Archives

The Video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

Pages

  • About
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in