| Author |
York, Sarah Kathryn |
| Year |
2012 |
| Publisher |
Regina, SK.: Coteau Books |
| ISBN |
9781550504774 |
| Keywords |
|
Abstract
QuillandQuire:First-time novelist Sarah Kathryn York chose an unusual format for her
book about Edouard Beaupré, also known as the Willow Bunch Giant, a Canadian from
a small community in Southern Saskatchewan who succumbed to tuberculosis at the 1904
World’s Fair in St. Louis when he was only 23 years old. At the time, Edouard was
over eight-foot-three, and still growing.The book’s 206 pages correspond to the number
of bones in the human body. The narrator, a radiographer at the University of Montreal
in the early 1950s, drops that fact early on, emphasizing the anatomy of the book
itself. Each chapter is named after a body part: bones, nose, fists, hair, and eyes.
The narrator, conscious of his own impending mortality, initially focuses on measuring
and preserving Edouard’s body, but realizes that he is more passionate about the man’s
life story than his remarkable frame, which resulted from a pituitary tumour.York
gives us Edouard’s history as a series of linked stories rather than one uninterrupted
narrative. Half Métis and half Québécois, he literally outgrows his dream of becoming
a cowboy and seeks a career as a strongman and performer at sideshows and circuses.
Though something of a celebrity, he is lonely and homesick and turns to alcohol for
comfort. Edouard’s managers betray his trust by exploiting him financially, and ultimately
betray him in death by continuing to display his outsized corpse (Edouard’s family
could not afford to transport him home for burial). Despite this cruelty and tragedy,
York manages to convey more magic and wonder than sadness, using biographical and
historical research to recreate the lives of marginalized people like ranch hands,
retired fighters, and circus freaks. She portrays Edouard as gentle, shy, handsome,
and multilingual, and more intelligent than contemporary journalists gave him credit
for being.What is the relationship between the body and the life lived? And why are
we simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by people who are exceptionally different
from us? York raises these questions while encouraging the reader to imagine Edouard’s
story from his own unique perspective. No small feat.
Miscellaneous
Short Stories
historical fiction
