A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing
by Cecelia Frey
Victoria: Brindle & Glass, 2009, ISBN 978-1-897142-36-3, 255 pp., $19.95 paper.

Seldom has a young woman's transition from adolescence into adulthood been so vividly captured as in this new novel by Calgary's Cecelia Frey. Her main protagonist Lilah Cellini tells all in a fresh voice, looking back from her successful singing career to her formative years.

In the opening chapters, Lilah lives with her mother, Teresa--known to everybody as Tree--in an Edmonton rooming house that includes the Popiloski family: the father, Popi, who lost a foot in the Vietnam War; his wife Rita, who works in a beauty salon; and their kids, Jamey and Beth. Others in the house include Paquette, the caretaker; his granddaughter Marie; and a woman the others call the Corset Lady.

The Cellinis and the Popiloskis occupy the second floor and "in effect, we all lived together, always in each other's rooms, so familiar we didn't even stop to knock, just hollered in, 'Are you home?' or 'Hi, whatcha doin?'" (2)

From an early age, Lilah worships Jamey, who's two years older and obsessed with music. He's forever making up songs and beating out a rhythm with his fingers on any surface they come in contact with. He frequently takes off, often for days, usually in whatever beat-up car he has at the time. Lilah explains:

When Jamey had legitimate wheels, then nothing or nobody could hold him back. He'd quit a job just like that and with a buddy or by himself, and his guitar of course, it goes without saying, he'd take off, especially in summer, sleeping in the car, or on a beach someplace, or by the side of the road. Each time he came home, Rita would get him cleaned up and fattened up, he'd get another job at another garage until he got some money together, and then he'd take off again. (54)

Author Frey's great ear for dialogue is most evident in scenes where the two families are eating a meal together. There can be at least two conversations going at once, and Frey, through narrator Lilah, carries them on at length--to humorous effect.

Inevitably, Tree comes home from work early one day and finds Jamey and Lilah in bed together. This launches the first of Tree's warnings about what a mistake her daughter is making by keeping company with Jamey. Tree's words will resonate through the next few years as Lilah and Jamey take off for the west coast, their sights set on a rock music career for Jamey.

They live in near-squalor in Vancouver while Jamey tries to pick up gigs. He forms a band and connects with a sound guy named Zeke, who becomes the manager and names the group Gun Wylde. Zeke seems to be somewhat of a diabolical character but you figure he's going to be important in Lilah's future, and, if you were paying attention from the first page, you are sure of it.

The group goes on tour up and down the coast and records an album, Lilah often giving us the lyrics of songs (this book needs an accompanying CD!). Some lines, from what becomes Jamey's signature song, haunt Lilah throughout the novel: " . . . and i want to know will we ever feel the same / it has been such a long long time / i want to know do we need to feel the pain . . ." (77) At some of their concerts, the group coaxes Lilah into singing back-up or duet with Jamey--and she's good.

Too soon, the band's fortunes take a downturn, the group breaks up, and Jamey and Lilah get a taste of domestic life, in a small town on Vancouver Island. Lilah soon faces a decision about what she really wants, especially when she finds herself pregnant. Does she want to support Jamey in the itinerant life of a singer or does she want to convince him that they need to settle down?

Author Frey relies on a melodramatic deus ex machina for a climactic plot twist and later a credibility-stretching coincidence to move things to a quick conclusion. Near the end, Lilah tells us, "I could go on about what happened next, which was plenty, but [that's] another story." (244) Most readers will wish she had told us what happened next, but perhaps that will appear in a sequel.

If these are blemishes, they are minor when you reflect on the whole novel. Lilah and Jamey are fully realized characters--so likeable, you cheer for them to succeed. Cecelia Frey has given us a coming-of-age novel that feels absolutely authentic--especially in its in-depth portrait of young people striving to make it in the world of pop music.

Dave Williamson is a Winnipeg novelist.

Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.

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