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Euphoria

par Connie Gault

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A bond between a young girl and an abandoned baby encompasses eastern and western Canada, from 1890s Toronto to the Regina Cyclone. A historical novel that chronicles the life of Gladdie McConnell and her seemingly mysterious connection to Orillia Cooper. The importance of sex, of love, of mothers and daughters, all are themes running through this novel. The nurturing and love from our mothers ( be it traditional or not) is paramount to real survival. The opening prologue, set in Toronto in the late 1880's, connects Gladdie to Orillia in a way she didn't think possible. When Gladdie, a Toronto boarding house servant, makes a promise to an abandoned day-old child in 1891, she means to keep it. A host of obstacles, including her station in life, a determined adoptive family and half a continent of distance, isn't going to stop her. Schooled in adversity, and red-headed - like all the best indomitable heroines - she knows how to persevere. The twists and turns of Gladdie's helpmate life lead her to the summer of 1912, when twenty-year-old Orillia Cooper wakes up from surgery after being struck down by the Regina Cyclone. It has taken a tornado - and a devastating injury to Orillia - to bring them back together, because Orillia is that same child. However, she has no idea who Gladdie McConnell really is; she's just a friend when she is in need of one. An engaging cast of characters inhabits Euphoria, bringing both eastern and western Canada at the turn of the 20th century to vivid life. This beguiling novel, with its quiet intelligence, wit and comedy of errors, is about the stories we want to believe in, and more importantly, about the value that may exist in wishes that don't come true.… (plus d'informations)
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EUPHORIA, by Connie Gault.

In real estate, the three most important things are commonly acknowledged to be "location, location and location." By the same token, the three most important things in quality fiction, at least to my mind, have always been "character, character and character."

Connie Gault demonstrated this beyond a doubt with the creation of ginger-haired orphan Gladdie McConnell, the heroine of her debut novel, EUPHORIA. We learn of Gladdie's hardscrabble life in stages, as Gault's narrative opens in 1891 with the birth of a baby girl at the mean Toronto boarding house where a teenage Gladdie is employed. The story then takes a leap forward to 1912, to Regina, Saskatchewan, just ravaged by a killer tornado. Gladdie is summoned to a hospital there by Orillia Cooper, a young woman seriously injured in the storm. (The Regina Cyclone of 1912 was a real event, the worst and most deadly storm ever to hit Canada, leaving 28 people dead and thousands homeless.)

Gladdie, along with Hilda Wutherspoon, an old friend from Toronto, takes Orillia into their boarding house while she recuperates, along with Susan, a small, mute girl apparently orphaned by the storm. From this point on Gladdie's story unfolds in artfully revealed layers, from her uncertain orphan origins forward. We are privy to her earliest memories of being cared for by a kind woman known only as Margaret, followed by a spell with the Tuppers, where she learns 'evil' things which she needs to do to survive. Escaping that, at nine she finds work at Mrs. Riley's rooming house in Toronto, where her 'education' continues apace, when, Mr. Riley, a ne'er-do-well but kindly tippler, explains to Gladdie that she mustn't do that 'touching' she learned at the Tuppers. Mr. Riley also writes down a piece of advice that Gladdie adopts and which serves her well: "Werk hard and be cherful."

I know I said that character is paramount to good fiction, and I stand by that; but Gault knows too how to spin a story, and Euphoria is a humdinger of a tale, with orphans and misfits and comical and grotesque characters galore. It's no wonder that Gault has been called a "Canadian Dickens." A look at the cast bears this out - the aforementioned nefarious Tuppers, an intimidating Mr. Best, the sly Wilbur Twigg, the dandy ladies' man Johnnie Dabb, the overweight, overbearing and itchy Mrs. Riley, the ill-fated unwed mother, "Jessie Dole," the furiously knitting Miss Avis, Perchance Parchman, the cellar-dwelling "Mushroom" Mainwaring and more. Yes, definitely Dickensian, no question. Orphans, bad people, good people, etc. Dickens, and now Gault.

I don't want to give anything else away here, so let me just say I loved this book. Connie Gault is a master storyteller, and she knows character. And this is very high quality fiction. My highest recommendation. ( )
  TimBazzett | Oct 6, 2015 |
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A bond between a young girl and an abandoned baby encompasses eastern and western Canada, from 1890s Toronto to the Regina Cyclone. A historical novel that chronicles the life of Gladdie McConnell and her seemingly mysterious connection to Orillia Cooper. The importance of sex, of love, of mothers and daughters, all are themes running through this novel. The nurturing and love from our mothers ( be it traditional or not) is paramount to real survival. The opening prologue, set in Toronto in the late 1880's, connects Gladdie to Orillia in a way she didn't think possible. When Gladdie, a Toronto boarding house servant, makes a promise to an abandoned day-old child in 1891, she means to keep it. A host of obstacles, including her station in life, a determined adoptive family and half a continent of distance, isn't going to stop her. Schooled in adversity, and red-headed - like all the best indomitable heroines - she knows how to persevere. The twists and turns of Gladdie's helpmate life lead her to the summer of 1912, when twenty-year-old Orillia Cooper wakes up from surgery after being struck down by the Regina Cyclone. It has taken a tornado - and a devastating injury to Orillia - to bring them back together, because Orillia is that same child. However, she has no idea who Gladdie McConnell really is; she's just a friend when she is in need of one. An engaging cast of characters inhabits Euphoria, bringing both eastern and western Canada at the turn of the 20th century to vivid life. This beguiling novel, with its quiet intelligence, wit and comedy of errors, is about the stories we want to believe in, and more importantly, about the value that may exist in wishes that don't come true.

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