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Pure Spring

by Brian Doyle

Several years have passed since Martin O’Boy’s adventures in Boy O’Boy. For some reason, Martin is no longer living with his family on Ottawa’s Papineau Street but is instead with the grandfather of his neighbourhood war hero, Buz Sawyer. Martin seems content with Grampa Rip, but he’s not in school and he needs a job. He lies about his age to get hired by Pure Spring, the local soft drink company. He soon realizes that his partner, Randy, is blackmailing him and cheating the customers, including McDowell’s Grocery, where the attractive Gerty works. With the help of Grampa Rip and Gerty, and with the surprising aid of Russian defector Igor Gouzenko, Martin exposes Randy and makes things right. Interspersed between these events are sections explaining “what happened” to Martin’s family, including his violent father and brain-damaged twin Phil, and the full horror of Martin’s loss emerges in the end.

This is Brian Doyle at his finest: compassionate and tough, in complete control of lucid prose that neither gets in the way nor gives away too much. The switch to the second-person singular voice in the six “what happened” sections grants powerful insight into Martin’s complicated psychological state. In the final flash of truth, his overreactions throughout the novel suddenly make sense. Frail Grampa Rip is exactly the wise mentor that Martin needs, a worthy successor to his lost Granny. And Gerty, another orphan, provides Martin with the hope he needs so badly.

Doyle’s constellation of damaged souls moves haltingly toward the light in an ending that is tenderly hopeful yet also realistic. This is a marvellous read.

 

Reviewer: Joanne Findon

Publisher: Groundwood Books

DETAILS

Price: $14.95

Page Count: 168 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-0-88899-775-3

Released: April

Issue Date: 2007-1

Categories: Children and YA Non-fiction

Age Range: 12+