Elliot and Me

Elliot & Me is a tender, funny, moving double narrative about two people who don’t understand each other. Elliot is a bright, reckless 17-year old who has just quit school late in his graduating year. Megan, his mother, is a woman who is haunted by the death of her father while she was traipsing through China, and is tired of being viewed as a beautiful work of art. The threatened return of Elliot’s father, Jack, a huge American ex-ballplayer, causes Megan and Elliot to flee from their home in East Vancouver to Hornby Island. Here, in an idyllic and very photogenic setting, this displaced odd couple-an angst-ridden, vibrant, self-destructive teenager and his inwardly questing mother whose physical loveliness makes her a target for other people’s dreams - experience a highly consequential summer. In a novel that is both a coming-of-age story and a portrait of the artist as a youngish, mesmerizing woman, both characters learn more than they want to about each other - and about themselves. The writing is beautiful and subtle and to me, very poetic. - Marilyn Bowering