Reproduction

by Ian Williams

This book one the Giller Prize this year.  It is written by a poet/writing prof.

The book starts out with a young teenager (Felicia) and an older man (Edgar)meeting in the hospital as their mothers appear on the verge of death.  They converse a little to pass the time.  The girl's mother dies, the man's mother doesn't. 
The girl is an orphan now.  She is trying to finish her high school work.  The man invites her to live at his place and look after his invalid mother.  The man is the head of a company and travels a lot on business.  He doesn't seem to have much care for his mother and seems to spend his time drinking an smoking in various hotel rooms.  He and the young woman start having sex, he has told her he had a vasectomy.  However, in a few months the girl is pregnant.  When she tells him she is pregnant he offers to pay for an abortion.  He schedules one but she doesn't go through with it.  When the man finds this out he unceremoniously fires her and kicks her out of his house.

The book then jumps to the future when the woman and her son Armistice (known as Army) are struggling to survive financially.  They end up living in part of the house of a divorced man (Oliver) who is bitter about he was treated by his ex-wife.  Army, always aware of being poor cooks up all sorts of schemes for making money, e.g. setting up a barber shop in the garage of the house.

Oliver's kids live in the U.S. with his ex-wife.  They come to visit him for the summer.  Army really likes the daughter (Heather) but she ignores him.  She gets attracted to a guy who works at Walmart(?).  In a very disturbing scene in the book she is drugged and gang raped by the Walmart guy and some of his friends.  She ends up getting pregnant.  Her mother is furious with her ex for letting this happen and send the girl back to Ontario to have the baby to avoid scandal.

At one point Edgar contacts Felicia and offers her money, initially $10 and $20,000, Felicia always refuses.  Eventually he sends her a cheque for more than $100,000 again she refuses.  It turns out Edgar is being accused of sexual harassment and it appears he wants Felicia to be a character witness on his behalf.  She doesn't agree.

After Heather has her baby Oliver and Felicia take on the baby as their child  Heather has named the child Chariot but he is known as Riot, and he is quite a trouble maker.  He wants to be a film maker but keeps getting kicked out of school for bad behaviour.  Oliver and Felicia don't have a sexual relationship but they do act like a blended family. They never tell Riot who his mother is, but he suspects.

All along Army has asked who his father is but Felicia doesn't tell him.  Felicia finds out Edgar is sick with cancer.  Army then discovers who his father is and invites him to come live with them as he prepares to die. Felicia and especially Oliver are furious about this. Army's behaviour is not really altruistic.  He hopes to get money from Edgar's estate.

When Edgar dies he leaves most of his estate to charity, his house to Felicia and a mixed tape of music for Army.

I found the names Armistice (Peace)/Army and Chariot/Riot interesting.  The original names are quite powerful, in a good way but the nicknames are vary aggressive.

This was an interesting story about an unconventional family. I enjoyed it.