- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Key Porter Books (Sep 8 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1552633470
- ISBN-13: 978-1552633472
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #187,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Critical Injuries, Joan Barfoot's ninth novel, starts with a chance encounter between two strangers. Isla is middle-aged, her kids grown up, and, after a disastrous first husband (who sexually assaulted his underage female employees), happily remarried. One unremarkable day she pops into an ice cream parlour for two cones just as 17-year-old Roddy is pulling an ill-conceived heist. In the confusion, Roddy fires his gun, Isla gets hit by the stray bullet, and she's left paralyzed. Roddy's aimless life has now become fully stupid: he's quickly caught, convicted, and incarcerated. The rest of the novel tells us who these two suddenly connected strangers were before their lives became tragically entangled, and what they each need to do in order to forgive what's past and figure out the future.
The novel's most entertaining storyline concerns Isla's flaky daughter Alix, who has joined a religious cult called Serenity Corps and changed her name to Starglow. She upsets Isla and the rest of the family by suggesting that her mother's tragedy may in fact be an opportunity and that her mother's involuntary "stillness" is a chance to achieve inner peace. Barfoot, probably best known for her 1982 novel Dancing in the Dark, later made into a film, has said that her fiction explores how "a life can turn on a dime." Alix ultimately shows this in the most surprising way when she gets involved with the young criminal in this solidly written and at times thought-provoking novel. --Nigel Hunt
From 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, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Necessary Healing, Sep 5 2002
By Eric Anderson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Critical Injuries (Hardcover)
Simple pleasures lead to dangerous results in Barfoot's deeply compelling and emotional novel Critical Injuries. Isla, a middle aged women goes with her husband Lyle to get an ice cream cone as a small reward. This innocent act turns to tragedy when Isla finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Roddy is a teenage boy who makes a foolhardy plan with his close friend Mike to make some quick money in an attempt to escape the monotony of their small town. A thoughtless action at the dairy bar sparks a chain of events that will alter their lives forever. Gradually, as the heart wrenching struggles of the present unfold, the pasts of Isla and Roddy are related to give an unprejudiced view of their development. Each has had to deal with unexpected loss, disappointment and terrifying challenges. Extraordinary decisions need to be made by ordinary people. This novel is a tribute to that struggle. Slowly we are given a detailed picture of the nature of recovery and forgiveness. The brutal honesty of the ending creates a resounding impression.The tremendous strength of this novel is in the power of Barfoot's prose to create a sense of immediacy. She does this through establishing powerful voices for her characters that comment upon situations as they occur letting their thoughts and memories leak out into the present moment. Her portrait of each character is deeply sympathetic to their struggle to live happily and thus the reader feels a strong connection to them. It is as if, through a slight alteration of fate, these moving characters could be us and their harrowing events might be ours. Each character is neither perfect nor evil. The author depicts with elegantly constructed prose the flaws of human nature using accuracy and profound wit. The intellectual conflicts the characters face are presented with emotionally rounded pictures lending depth and wisdom to their struggle. The novel makes a powerful impression.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read!, April 20 2005
By Katrina Denza "KatDenza" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Critical Injuries (Hardcover)
One incredible, devastating crime that happens in the blink of an eye, and two lives are changed forever. This novel speaks for both the perpetrator and the victim and blurs the lines of right and wrong, love and hate, forgiveness and anger. Joan Barfoot's writing is skilled and mature with an amazing level of introspection. Beautiful.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Barfoot not at her best, Dec 24 2002
By Glenn McLeod - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Critical Injuries (Hardcover)
When a young man (17 years old) shoots and wounds a woman who entered a store he was attempting to rob, both their lives are turned upside down. The story told alternately by each of the main characters reveals their individual terror and struggle; the woman with her paralysis and sudden change of fortune is compared to the boys sudden realization that he has made a mistake that will last him the rest of his life. Their struggle is for forgiveness for each other and for those who have peopled their lives. There are some beautiful poignant moments when each of the main characters realize how influential family have been and how little they meant at the time. The first person narrative becomes a bit boring at times but otherwise the story is well told and maintains interest.
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