In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), a teenager fakes his own death to escape his violent and alcoholic father. In the company of a runaway slave, he undertakes a long raft adventure on the Mississippi River which will correspond to the end of innocence, the discovery of the hypocrisy of society and deep reflections on family, good and evil, as well as the place that each person occupies in the world.
This cult novel by Mark Twain, inscribed in American literature as an absolute classic of the story of emancipation, has inspired many writers to reproduce this pattern according to which an adolescent must take the road, leave far from his family to cross a place, a State, a border, and come back transformed.
The Ballad of Samuel Hewittthe first novel by Canadian Nick Tooke, brilliantly takes up this epic in the arid and inhospitable lands of the Thompson River valley, in British Columbia.
Set in the context of the Great Depression, this anti-western tells the story of Samuel Hewitt, 17, who, to take revenge on his mother’s lover, decides to steal his stallion and take the leak. Teaming up with his best friend, Charleyboy, a teenage member of the Shuswap nation, he leaves behind his father, a Great War veteran haunted by his memories, and sets off in search of a new life.
On the road, the two young men discover a difficult reality, populated by criminals, tramps and poor souls robbed by the economic crisis. The tide seems to turn when the duo meets artists and technicians from a traveling circus in search of lost glory in a world where even the marvelous is no longer allowed to exist. In this surreal and dilapidated environment, Samuel develops an unexpected friendship with the aging ringmaster and cannot resist the charms of his daughter, a blind trapeze artist who is as agile as she is enigmatic. Under the big top, Samuel will learn the hard way that a nation built on violence, injustice and betrayal extends its tentacles in all environments, and that appeasement sometimes takes unsuspected paths.
Originally from the United Kingdom, who arrived in Canada at the age of 12, Nick Tooke — who is now based in the Okanagan Valley — reveals with this first novel a real talent as a storyteller. Although he takes some narrative shortcuts to make his story more effective, he constructs landscapes, atmospheres and dialogues which seem to come to life before the reader’s eyes, in highly cinematic writing.
Under his pen, larger-than-life characters are born, desolate and treacherous plains and tangible wounds that reverberate even in moments of silence and contemplation — magnificently rendered by Jean-Marie Jot’s translation. The most memorable passages take place in the strangeness of the circus and its acrobats and phenomena, of which the writer skillfully takes part, infusing his story with mystery, magic and striking unsaid things. Added to this atmosphere is the endearing Samuel Hewitt, bowed by the heritage offered to men by society, and whose spirit and heart remain long after the book is closed.