Thoughts on: Stunt by Claudia Dey

I decided to read something comfortably contemporary this week.  It turned out being anything but comfortable, and all too enjoyable.  Let's give it up for Stunt by Claudia Dey:

Our young narrator is Eugenia, obsessed with her father, she was a premature baby who was born into a bizarre family.  Her mother, Mink, was once a contortionist and dancer.  Immaculata, her sister, takes after her beautiful mother.  She is graceful and nurturing.  Eugenia is like her father, wild and ugly.  She has Synesthesia, and can immediately recall minute details from her childhood at the drop of a hat.  When her father, Sheb Wooly Ledoux, leaves with nothing but a note and a pan, still warm from his breakfast, Eugenia knows that she is meant to connect the dots and follow him.  Like a map of her childhood, she begins her search.

What follows is an intricately fragmented narrative.  Snippets of sensual memories slowly build into vivid personal identities.  Every colour, smell and sight is carefully revealed, unearthing a much larger birdseye view of modern mythology.  Inter weaved with the plot is cowboy poetry, postcards from outer space, tightrope walkers and apples. 

If I had to compare it to anything else I'd read, I'd say that it has some similarities to Lullabies for Little Children by Heather O'Neill.  Both novels are humourous but engage what I would call little girl ugliness.  By this I mean, all of the rotten things that can happen to little girls when they are young and still forming their identities.  But their styles are altogether different.  Dey is originally a playwright and her sense of "setting the scene" is impeccable.  This is her first novel, but the format really suits her writing style.  Eugenia is a wonderful heroine.  She can see what is not there better than most people can see what is there.  Her overactive imagination is her best friend.  There are elements of "magic realism" in that supernatural things occur, and you just have to accept them.  Mostly, there are just so many genres that I could squash into this novel, that I'll stop the comparisons.  Stunt was a complete success.  I loved the way the moments breathed in and out.  I loved the way that I could smell the moments, just like Eugenia. 

Ta for now,

ET