Douglas Glover: Elle

How to win the Governor General Prize for Fiction:

1. Make the book about Newfoundland or at least include it as a character.
2. Natives...lots of Natives and native culture. Preferably being destroyed by the white invader.
3. Misery and agony.
4. Religious undertones, however shallow.
5. Having a person turn into an animal and then back into a person will guarantee you a nomination.
6. Try to use the word "cock" as often as possible - extra points if you manage to veil this usage under the guise of awakening sexuality or feminine strength.
7. Make it very confusing. The "Emperor's New Clothes Effect" will guarantee book reviews that read, "A tremendous energy, a galloping, brawling liveliness."
8. Nothing can be gruesome enough. If you want a woman to give birth to a half-fish, half-boy and then have to watch it sputter its last breath in her bloody lap - go ahead. It's not over the top - it's brave.

...and that is why Elle by Douglas Glover won the GG award.

I will give credit where it is due; Glover can turn a sentence and his writing is distinct and unique. The book is based on an old legend of a girl who is abandoned on the harsh Canadian coast (off Labrador) and manages to survive for three summers and two winters. The character wasn't believable and I sort of just wanted her to die. When she started turning into a bear I really wanted the book to be over. Is she a bear or isn't she? At first I thought her evolution into ursus form was a metaphor for her adaptation to her new and wild environment. Then she developed three more sets of nipples (which were real and visible to others) and I was left confused.

I didn't really like this book but I glad I read it...if only because I finished it.