{"id":5735,"date":"2016-09-06T20:59:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T20:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/?p=5735"},"modified":"2016-09-06T21:05:02","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T21:05:02","slug":"toronto-book-awards-2016-heyday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/toronto-book-awards-2016-heyday\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Book Awards 2016: Heyday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Word On The Street Toronto will\u00a0be hosting the\u00a0authors and editors of all five finalists for the\u00a02016 Toronto Book Awards\u00a0at this year\u2019s festival on\u00a0Sunday, September 25,<\/strong> at Harbourfront Centre. As a special treat, we’ll be posting reviews of the nominated books in the weeks leading up to the festival\u00a0from a panel of writers, reviewers, and editors working in Toronto today.<\/p>\n

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First up is Heyday<\/em>\u00a0by Marnie Woodrow<\/a>,\u00a0reviewed by\u00a0Erin Della Mattia. Erin, the first of five 2016 Toronto Book Awards reviewers, is a writer, researcher, and the managing editor of the online magazine Sewer Lid<\/a>.\u00a0Marnie Woodrow\u00a0will be reading at the The Word On the Street at Harbourfront Centre on September 25, at 1:30 \u2013 2:00pm<\/a> at the Toronto Book Awards Tent.\u00a0This year\u2019s Toronto Book Awards will be awarded on October 11, 2016.<\/p>\n

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August 10th<\/sup>, 1909. Hanlan\u2019s Point Amusement Park is consumed by flames. One girl, a ticket-taker, perishes in the flames. \u201cGirls died every day. Not mine<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marnie Woodrow\u2019s Heyday<\/em> follows the burgeoning friendship and romance of two teen girls seeking fun and freedom in early-twentieth century Toronto. Bette, seventeen, comes from a decent, middle-class family from which, like many rebellious youths, she longs to escape. She finds her chance one summer day when an eccentric red-haired man hands her an advertisement for Hanlan\u2019s Point Amusement Park. Once there, she is immediately intrigued by the Figure 8 rollercoaster, riding it again and again, scheming just to sneak over to the Islands without her parents\u2019 knowledge.<\/p>\n

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Freddy, too, understands the joyful rush that only rollercoasters can bring. At eighteen, Freddy is an employee at Hanlan\u2019s Point, having escaped her previous employers, the abusive farmers in Stratford. The two girls meet when they share a compartment on Bette\u2019s very first rollercoaster ride \u2013 Freddy gripping Bette\u2019s hand to calm her \u2013 and although they don\u2019t know each other\u2019s names, they make a promise to meet again. Thus begins their whirlwind summer, in which longings for amusement and intimacy lead into covert plans for escape from the restraints of conventional life.<\/p>\n

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Their story is contrasted with that of Joss, a modern-day photographer living on the Toronto Islands, trying to mourn the loss of her wife, Bianca. Very quickly it is made clear that Joss viewed their relationship as one of safety and convenience rather than passionate love, constantly comparing Bianca to earlier lovers. Yet Joss\u2019s increasing alcohol dependency seems to betray different, and perhaps subconscious, emotions.<\/p>\n

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Her story is relayed very gradually, only building in tension when she arrives in New York, where, forgetting that there is no one to hear her message, she calls Bianca\u2019s cell phone to tell her she has arrived safely. Joss\u2019s strange mix of resentment of and duty towards Bianca is at once intriguing and confusing: while her trip to New York is largely fueled by a long-held desire which she had to subdue to suit Bianca, the reasons for Joss\u2019s self-denial are never quite clear.<\/p>\n

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The writing does, at times, lack some boldness and specificity. It occasionally shies away from certain details, especially concerning Freddy\u2019s physical and sexual abuse, which is described rather vaguely, making her perpetrator into a generic villain. For the reader, questions may arise about how Freddy actually understood these experiences and what kind of language she would have used to describe them: questions which, if answered, could have added further complexities to Freddy as a character. Bette\u2019s character has similar issues, in that the lack of description of her physicality contributes to a misrepresentation of her teenage self, and she often seems to be five years younger than she is.<\/p>\n

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And yet, this gesture of withholding also avoids sensationalism. Even in its most intimate or most heartbreaking moments, Heyday <\/em>does not render the reader into a gawker witnessing someone else\u2019s trauma or pleasure. In an odd sense, Woodrow never oversteps the privacy of her characters. Just as Bette, Freddy, and Joss, have an implicit understanding of the need for secrecy, both for their relationships, their pasts, and their plans for the future, Woodrow crafts their stories with a respectful, light touch.<\/p>\n

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This is a novel almost entirely driven by relationships and the desires of its characters, most of whom \u2013 from the three protagonists to their supporting characters \u2013 are fantastically individualized and demand recognition. Much of the novel\u2019s rollercoaster-esque emotional pull can be found in Bette and Freddy\u2019s narratives, which offer active, forward-moving plots in contrast to the sustained melancholy of Joss\u2019s more reactionary chapters.<\/p>\n

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This comparison of youthful frenzy to the steady decline and affective exhaustion of middle age is not an unfamiliar literary trope, but Woodrow does not simply reproduce a static treatment of it. Her protagonists, young and old, desire all the \u201cthrills, spills and chills\u201d that life has to offer, which become embodied in the enticing promises and irresistible festivities of amusement parks.<\/p>\n

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At first, Joss\u2019s mirroring of Bette\u2019s love of rollercoasters feels like too obvious a connection between the two narratives. This connection is deepened by the end, however, when Joss\u2019s journey to Coney Island re-enacts the awe and joy of Bette\u2019s first trip to Hanlan\u2019s Point, complete with a young and nameless Freddy-like androgyne.<\/p>\n

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Simultaneously, and more subtly, Joss also lives out Freddy\u2019s own yearnings for happiness and freedom that she always associated with Coney Island, which, for Joss, are tempered by the inevitable changes wrought by time. But, as Joss eventually discovers, there will always be space for dreams. Through the dualities that run across the three narrative threads of Heyday<\/em>, Woodrow gradually reveal the shared, dreamy idealism of its characters, an idealism that, while often attributed to youthful naivety, becomes a harbinger of beautiful experiences and, in turn, beautiful art.<\/p>\n

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Erin Della Mattia is a writer, researcher, and an almost-graduate of Ryerson University’s Literatures of Modernity MA program. She also serves as the Managing Editor of the online journal of urban art and literature,\u00a0Sewer Lid<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"contest-banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nominated for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award in 2003, what is the name of Marnie Woodrow’s first novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out our website,<\/a> and send the answer to justin@thewordonthestreet.ca to be entered in a draw to win a signed copy of\u00a0Heyday<\/em> by Marnie Woodrow!<\/p>\n

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Contest Rules<\/strong><\/p>\n