Book Review: "The Call" by Yannick Murphy

Again, this is a book I got out of the library on a recommendation from someones "Best Reads of 2011." I had never heard of it before, and the author's name begs some sort of cultural dichotomy.

This is a good book, albeit written in an odd format.  The main character, whose name we don't know, is a large-animal veterinarian and the "call" refers to just that, the call he gets about an animal in need. The structure of the book is almost like a play, or a screenplay:  in capital letters and bold type the author tells us what is coming.  There are statements such as THE CALL:  and then we know who called and why.  ACTION:  what the vet did with and for the animal.  RESULT:  obviously, the outcome of the vet visit, whether the animal lives or dies or gives birth.  Along the way we meet the people who own the animals as well and their stories are as important as the vet's care of the animals.   WHAT THE WIFE SAYS:  again, obvious but usually in response to what he said or what the kids said or did or just a general observation about their lives together. There are other categories as well:  WHAT THE WIFE MADE FOR DINNER, WHAT THE KIDS SAID, etc.

The story is set in rural Vermont, and the turning point is an almost fatal hunting accident that brings the family into clear focus as they try to make sense of this terrible event. The story expands from here and is basically about people looking for meaning in a world that seems to make little sense, but they don't give up the search.  While they are trying to make sense of things and holding out hope that the accident won't prove fatal, many other odd things happen: strangers show up at their house who end up not being strangers, there might be a spaceship hovering above the vet's house, the vet might have some weird disease that he is supposed to get checked and on and on.  These things aren't distractions.  Instead they lend reality to the characters because this is exactly how real life is: jumbled, confusing and complicated.  This book has a strange cadence, perhaps because of the structure, but the characters, especially the vet, become more and more real as the story opens up. It's a short book and a quick read but you end up liking everyone and you want them to be good and healthy and happy.  There are bits of brilliance in the writing, the everyday made beautiful:  We stood in bright sunshine right outside the door, slipping on the melting ice dirty and matted with Newfoundland hair from where the dogs sometimes sat and kept watch, looking down our driveway and out over our field to the pond. ... The snow wasn't soft, but more like gritty crystals that stayed in Jen's hair as she lay, still laughing, on the snow. Sunlight came through the branches of the apple tree and the children, breathless, lay back on the snow beside Jen and let the sun hit their faces."

Check it out of the library, let me know what you think.

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