EMILY HOLTON’S DOUBLE-SIDED NOVELLA IS A FASCINATING READ — as long as you start with the right side. And how do you know which is the right one? You don’t. Half of this reversible book is called Dear Canada Council, A Small Illustrated Novella by Emily Holton. Flip it over and you’ve got Our Starland, with its small-type subtitle: Another Novella, Even Smaller. Those titles might suggest that you read Dear Canada Council first. What a mistake.
I read it twice and I still didn’t get it. Then I read Our Starland. Eureka! Our Starland is an amazing little story and absolutely necessary to understanding Dear Canada Council. Holton is one smart writer.
Our Starland tells the story of Willa, whose father Levi owns an apple orchard in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. There is also a feral boy, found in the BC interior. It’s an unusual format—short prose clips on each page that tell elements of the story from Willa’s, Levi’s and the boy’s points of view. In addition, excerpts are included from case files written when the boy was found, as well as from an essay from the book Child Development. While there is no indication that these documents are real, Holton does acknowledge Lucien Malton’s book Wolf Children and essays and lectures on feral children by J.J. Rousseau and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Willa’s mother has died in the not-too-distant past, and both she and her father are still grieving. Levi hires a number of temporary staff during the picking season, among whom is the young feral boy. Willa falls in love with him from a distance (she is very young) and some of Our Starland explores her feelings for this mysterious boy. However, these feelings are described in the third person and are interspersed with insights from her father, the case files, the book and from social workers who first interacted with the boy.
Dear Canada Council is Willa’s story of her love for the boy, whom she refers to as Audric Parent, a feral child who was allegedly found in British Columbia some years ago. She even challenges us to Google him (which I did, with no results). With first-person narration, Willa explores her emotions about this boy, her dead mother, her father and other loves in her life: Miguel, and late Canadian television host Brian Linehan. She appeals to the Canada Council for money to buy plane tickets to Caye Caulker, a faraway island off the coast of Belize. Here she will build a town for herself, Audric, and Miguel, creating a perfect world for them all.
It’s a lyrical little book filled with gorgeous illustrations by the author. The entries are sometimes composed of just a few lines, and often seem more like poetry than prose. Emily Holton is multi-talented, a true artist. The purpose of the book is not entirely spelled out—the reader is encouraged to interpret it according to her own personal baggage. Holton doesn’t want to tell us how to read her book; that’s part of its artistry. But telling us would have made it that much stronger.
Carolyne Van Der Meer is a Montreal journalist and editor who is completing a Ph.D. dissertation in Canadian literature at Université of Montréal. Her poetry and fiction have been published in Carte Blanche, Bibliosofia, Helios and the Hudson Gazette, with more forthcoming in Canadian Woman Studies.
