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Critical Injuries

Name: Critical Injuries
Author: Joan Barfoot
ISBN: 9781582432083

by Joan Barfoot

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Overview

After years of disappointment, forty-nine-year-old Isla is finally content in her second marriage to Lyle. Seventeen-year-old Roddy, on the other hand, is a faltering student, and occasional shoplifter trying to make sense of his life. Their worlds collide one hot August afternoon when a fake robbery organised by Roddy and his friend Mike goes horribly wrong, leaving Isla with a bullet lodged in her spine. With Roddy 'immobilised' in gaol and Isla lying paralysed in the hospital, they both have lots of time to reflect upon where it all went wrong.

Synopsis

Library Journal

In her eighth novel, Barfoot (Getting Over Edgar) explores the effects of an act of violence on both the perpetrator and the victim. At 49, Isla has found happiness in her second marriage to attorney Lyle. She loves her two grown children, too, although she'd be the first to admit that she's not happy about their lives: daughter Alix has joined a cult, and son Jamie is drifting from job to job after recovering from a teenage drug habit. Living in the same community as Isla and her family, 17-year-old Roddy is restless and dissatisfied with small-town life. In order to finance their scheme to run away to the nearest big city, Roddy and best friend Mike set up a fake robbery at the ice cream store where Mike works. Isla enters the store at precisely the wrong moment, Roddy panics, a gun goes off, and both Isla and Roddy must learn to live with the consequences: Isla is a paraplegic, and Roddy spends more than a year in jail. Alternating viewpoints between these two characters, Barfoot brilliantly conveys how out of tragedy can come not only acceptance of changed circumstances but a sort of grace. Readers can't help but admire Isla's courage. All of award-winning Canadian novelist Barfoot's earlier books are out of print in the United States, which is a shame; after finishing Critical Injuries, those who enjoy good, character-driven fiction will surely want to read her earlier books as well. Recommended for public libraries large and small. Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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Editorials

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Kirkus Reviews

The life of a surviving victim converges with that of her teenaged assailant: a story from award-winning Canadian author Barfoot that's strongest at its start. Isla, at 49, finally feels secure in a happy second marriage and has hopes for her troubled grown children. Then she walks in on a robbery and is shot by Roddy, the panicked teenager. These facts emerge brokenly but effectively as Isla comes to in the hospital, paralyzed. At the same time, Roddy is fleeing, his thoughts revealing more confusion than badness. His relief, when he is captured, approaches joy. Barfoot (Duet For Three, 1986, not reviewed), whose ninth novel (but only second US publication) this is, is masterful at entering the consciousness of each: Isla's flickering thoughts, for example, her wittiness, her realistic and not always reasonable anger. Roddy, 17, comes across less as a monster than simply as a kid-a portrayal that's thoughtful, even brave, of Barfoot given today's willingness to demonize violent youth. The unreality of Roddy's adolescent thinking is well captured, as are his swings between sincere remorse and selfishness. But the story loses steam when Isla focuses on her past and on her first husband's terrible secret that led their son to drug addiction and their daughter to a cult. Unfortunately, these putatively horrific facts are withheld for so long that once they're revealed-however bad-they may elicit a shrug. Possibly that's Barfoot's point-that trauma to someone who experiences it may seem far less significant to someone on the outside-but the letdown after such buildup hurts the book. Eschewing the easy happy ending, Barfoot allows no miracle cure for Isla, but credibility is strained by theperfect second husband, the world's most supportive mother, and a daughter-now free of the cult-who's able to redeem Roddy through mysterious grace. An ordinary woman and her family face extreme challenges, putting this one in contention for wide readership-and yet those expecting a genuine accounting won't find it a winner.