In Get Back, a novella from former Conroe Courier editor Anthony Connolly, the first person narrator, Michael Cross, is at a literal crossroads in his life. His marriage is disintegrating and a gimmicky Chicken Soup-type book that he published shortly after being released from prison overshadows his current literary aspirations. Michael receives in the mail a bizarre package containing an old paddle from his sister, Meg. Inscribed on it is a message not fit for a family newspaper, but the text brings the words “without a paddle” to mind. Michael interprets it as a call to action, so he sets out to drive across Western Canada to reach his sister—who he hasn’t seen in years—in time for her umpteenth birthday. Because he wrecked the family car, Michael and his teenage daughter Hope load up the old hippie microbus adorned with bathtub flower stickers that has been languishing in the garage, a relic of a rebellious and earnest youth. Dubbed thingamajig, the van becomes their home on the road while Michael, Hope and their dog Yippie enjoy a variety of adventures as they cross the miles to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Many of these adventures involve bathrooms because Michael is suffering from weak kidneys. If Get Back has one flaw, it is that these incidents are so frequent and embarrassing that they become almost predictable, thus losing some of their power. A few well-chosen catastrophes might have had more impact than the relentless series of bathroom hits and messes that Michael endures. Road trips are rarely about the destination so much as what the travelers learn along the way. Michael and Hope get the chance to spend some quality time together and talk about important issues, paramount among them the impending dissolution of Michael’s marriage to Lilith, his absentee wife, a photojournalist who spends much of her time in the wilds of Africa or South America. After he and Hope are diverted to attend to the burial of a family member of some strangers Hope meets at a rest stop, they spend a couple of days with one of his former lovers in Calgary, which Michael considers his “embarrassment city.” At one point, Hope picks up a hitchhiker while Michael is asleep. The young man—not a serial killer, to Michael’s relief—is returning to his family after nearly two decades of self-imposed exile unsure of what awaits him. Michael and Hope take part in these little snippets of other people’s lives and see how they reflect back their own. Though he wants to work on his novel, everything conspires to push him back to the sequel to his immensely popular first book, which consisted of a series of nearly hypothetical questions that he answered in the guises of different people. Connolly uses a number of these questions to illuminate his novella: What do your children know about you? What is your favorite time of day? Ultimately they reach Portage in time for the birthday celebration and through a series of mishaps and chance encounters, Michael discovers what new direction he wants his life to take. At less than ninety pages, Get Back is a little too brief and, given the geography Michael and Hope have to cross—both literal and metaphorical—Connolly might have taken a little more time to get them to Portage. It’s very much a book of midlife re-evaluation, banishing regrets and regaining one’s compass in life. Web site and all contents © Copyright Bev Vincent 2023. All rights reserved. |
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