CRITICAL INJURIES

The life of a surviving victim converges with that of her teenaged assailant: a story from award-winning Canadian author Barfoot that’s strongest at its start.

Isla, at 49, finally feels secure in a happy second marriage and has hopes for her troubled grown children. Then she walks in on a robbery and is shot by Roddy, the panicked teenager. These facts emerge brokenly but effectively as Isla comes to in the hospital, paralyzed. At the same time, Roddy is fleeing, his thoughts revealing more confusion than badness. His relief, when he is captured, approaches joy. Barfoot (Duet For Three, 1986, not reviewed), whose ninth novel (but only second US publication) this is, is masterful at entering the consciousness of each: Isla’s flickering thoughts, for example, her wittiness, her realistic and not always reasonable anger. Roddy, 17, comes across less as a monster than simply as a kid—a portrayal that’s thoughtful, even brave, of Barfoot given today’s willingness to demonize violent youth. The unreality of Roddy’s adolescent thinking is well captured, as are his swings between sincere remorse and selfishness. But the story loses steam when Isla focuses on her past and on her first husband’s terrible secret that led their son to drug addiction and their daughter to a cult. Unfortunately, these putatively horrific facts are withheld for so long that once they’re revealed—however bad—they may elicit a shrug. Possibly that’s Barfoot’s point—that trauma to someone who experiences it may seem far less significant to someone on the outside—but the letdown after such buildup hurts the book. Eschewing the easy happy ending, Barfoot allows no miracle cure for Isla, but credibility is strained by the perfect second husband, the world’s most supportive mother, and a daughter—now free of the cult—who’s able to redeem Roddy through mysterious grace.

An ordinary woman and her family face extreme challenges, putting this one in contention for wide readership—and yet those expecting a genuine accounting won’t find it a winner.