Synopses & Reviews
A delightfully offbeat story that features an opinionated tortoise and an IQ-challenged narrator who find themselves in the middle of a life-changing mystery.
Audrey (a.k.a. Oddly) Flowers is living quietly in Oregon with Winnifred, her tortoise, when she finds out her dear father has been knocked into a coma back in Newfoundland. Despite her fear of flying, she goes to him, but not before she reluctantly dumps Winnifred with her unreliable friends. Poor Winnifred.
When Audrey disarms an Air Marshal en route to St. Johns we begin to realize theres something, well, odd about her. And we soon know that Audreys quest to discover who her father really was - and reunite with Winnifred - will be an adventure like no other.
Excerpt:
Winnifred is old. She might be three hundred. She came with the apartment. The previous tenant, a rock climber named Cliff, was embarking on a rock-climbing adventure that would not have been much fun for Winnifred. Back then her name was Iris. Cliff had inherited Iris from the previous tenant. Nobody knew how old Iris was or where she had come from originally. Now Cliff was moving out. He said, Would you like a tortoise.
I would not say no to a tortoise, I said.
I was alone in Portland and the trees were giant. I picked her up and she blinked at me with her upside-down eyelids. I felt instantly calm. Her eyes were soft brown. Her skin felt like an old elbow. I will build you a castle, I whispered. With a pool. And I was true to my word.
About the Author
Jessica Grant is a member of Newfoundlands Burning Rock Collective (members include Michael Winter and Lisa Moore). Her first collection of short stories, Making Light of Tragedy, includes a story that won both the Western Magazine Award for Fiction and the Journey Prize.
Reading Group Guide
1. In a video interview with Jessica Grant (found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGzjzl57hjE), she states that although Audrey fancies herself a detective of sorts, “There are some questions in the book that she not only fails to answer, but that she fails to even ask.” What do you think some of these might be, and how would you answer them?
2. What are your thoughts on Audrey’s escapade with Marshal Marshall, and her encounter with the in-love pilots?
3. Walter described his work in genetics to Audrey by comparing mouse and tortoise heartbeats to her own (p. 274). Discuss how his work as a biogerontologist has affected Audrey.
4. Discuss the matter of Wedge’s age. What do you think is really going on? Consider the Forced Swimming Test. What is it meant to prove, and is there a human equivalent?
5. What do you think about Verlaine’s assertion that teaching a child that death is “evitable” is a form of cruelty (p. 275)?
6. Discuss the two narrative voices in the book. What are your thoughts on the reliability of these two characters as our narrators? How does the presence of Winnifred’s narrative affect Audrey’s?
7. Discuss Chuck and his struggles. What do you think is the cause of Winnifred’s sinking feeling as Cliff departs with her (p. 359)? How does Chuck’s story fit with the main narrative?
8. Audrey has many original perspectives on life’s minutia (corkscrews, doorknobs, Christmas lights, swans, planes, taxicabs, to name a few). Was one a particular favourite for you? Why?
9. Discuss the presence of planes and airports in the novel. What do you think of Audrey’s idea that flight is a skill hidden in our genes?
10. What are your thoughts about Thoby’s arm? And why do you think he leaves when he does?
11. Were you surprised by the change in Audrey’s relationship with Toff near the end of the book? What is your opinion of him?
12. Discuss Audrey and Judd’s relationship. In what way is it different from the relationship she had with Cliff?
13. In some ways, the ending of the novel feels like a beginning. What do you think lies ahead for Audrey?
14. Discuss Winnifred’s recollection of an encounter with a red butterfly in the desert (p. 340). What revelation does she have, and how does it fit with the themes of the novel?