Skin Room

by Sara Tilley

The sharply realized scenes in Skin Room, Sara Tilley's remarkable debut novel, alternate between Sanikiluaq, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), and St. John's, Newfoundland; between 12-year-old Teresa Norman's crash into Inuit culture and her later life as a 23-year-old adult in the harrowing final phase of coping with the tragedy of her year in Sanikiluaq. She is an innocent victim of severe cultural misunderstanding. Nobody to blame, widespread suffering. With panache, Teresa writes her way into the events leading up to and away from the trauma. "If you love words, they'll never desert you," she says. "They will always be there, waiting patiently in their ordered pages. I can re-read the same books over and over and be surprised, every time, by some detail or nuance that didn't appear before. . . . Always, it seems, the story . . . has changed and I've remained constant, when, really, the object is an object, a thing unchanging, and it is I who continue to metamorphose. My heart. My tongue." Only the best books invite re-reading, of course, those by writers who both love words and know how to work them. The writing in Skin Room, both the voices of precocious 12-year-old Teresa and her sophisticated older self, is straightforward and yet as memorably evocative as poetry. Whether Sara Tilley is describing the mores of Inuit schoolchildren or the contemporary downtown St. John's arts scene, she carries a reader close, every step of the way. Skin Room is one of those novels one wants to re-read because it grabs and never lets go. The novel is hilarious at times, despite the heart-rending central event and aftermath. Coming of age has not been more searingly rendered. Skin Room is the work of a formidable new talent.

Genres: Fiction, Canada

387 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un premier roman remarqué, gagnant de plusieurs prix, enfin traduit en français! Étoile montante de la littérature terre-neuvienne, Sara Tiley brode ici un roman d’apprentissage comme il s’en fait peu. Un roman qui alterne le récit de cette jeune fille blanche qui arrive dans une petite communauté du Nord, avec son père qui enseigne l’éducation-physique à l’école. S'entrelacent, au fil de chapitres, des événements, vécus par cette même jeune femme quelques années plus tard. Elle est, certes, un peu plus mature, mais elle semble être toujours à la recherche d’elle-même... Riche et originale, la plume poétique, mais crue de la jeune auteure dépeint avec une belle sensibilité ce passage vers l’âge adulte.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très bon livre, qui met en lumière les dures réalités de la jeunesse dans le Grand Nord. Une écriture magnifique, qui accompagne parfaitement la personnalité limite de la protagoniste.

[David]

One of a pair of novels [the other one Tina Chaulk's A few kinds of wrong] that I finally got around to reading after a long delay and immediately wished I read earlier. A novel full of tremendously evocative imagery of growing up, and of the ways in which early adulthood can be sorely painted by adolescence. I feel great sympathy for Teresa, the narrator and protagonist, despite the fact that she frequently treats others as badly as they seem to treat her. One feature of many contemporary novels is the stress endured by children whose parents have, for whatever reason--death included--split up. There is a great deal in this narrative about a person's slow emergence of comprehension about what it is to be a sexual being informed by uncomfortable recognition that all the adults around her--parents, especially, included--are also sexual beings. Two principal widely divergent settings are united by Teresa's memory and often the progress is reminiscent of Powell's dancers who are "unable, perhaps" to control the steps of their dance, filtering through to the McGarrigle sisters Dancer with the Bruised Knees, until we reach Dalbello's "Heavy Boots" or, in the words of Anne Sexton, "to bedlam and partway back." Bruises heal, though sometimes slowly. For all that this novel shares with others, I found it unlike quite anything else I've ever read.

[Audree R · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est un roman bien traduit, d'une écriture efficace où l'on dénote l'omniprésence d'un bel humour souvent sarcastique tout au long de la narration assez enfantine. Je n'ai pas arrêté de sourire en le lisant dans l'autobus.

On y suit la vie de Teresa, le personnage principal, sur une alternance de courts chapitres entre sa vie de pré-adolescente alors que son père faisait un contrat dans un village inuit et sa vie dans la jeune vingtaine à Saint-John's. Les thèmes principaux sont les aléas de la vie de famille, les perceptions du monde et l'intensité des sentiments à l'adolescence, l'amour et la peur de l'attachement. L'auteure montre bien le choc des cultures pour de jeunes enfants qui sont les seuls « Blancs » dans une école inuite. Elle tisse tranquillement une idylle amoureuse entre la pré-ado et un jeune Inuit qui oscille entre l'obsession, la folie et le conte de fées.

Le tout m'a rappelé à quel point l'adolescence peut être pénible et complexe et comment les enfants sont des êtres si intelligents. On finit par réfléchir aux impacts de notre enfance et de notre adolescence sur notre personne adulte.

Je note quelques petites longueurs sur 567 pages, mais c'est somme toute un bon roman, d'une belle originalité, qui nous touche autant qu'il nous fait sourire.

[Emily Ursuliak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ripped my heart out in all the best ways possible.

[Ivalmoryah · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand I thought it was really beautifully written and on the other hand I couldn't finish it. It made me feel sad, desperate and lonely. It was like there was no light. Gave up after one third and felt sorry about it cause I really feel it is a great book if only you don't feel overwhelmed by the cold, the vast, the empty,the hardship...

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about a young woman's coming-of-age as a 12-year-old living with her dad & brother in the NWT (prior to the creation of Nunavut) but also coming-into-relationships at age 33 (yes, Biblically-significant) in St. John's.

[Samuel Dulac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une méchante claque dans le visage de par la beauté et la rigueur du nord de Terre-Neuve d'une adolescente vivant ses premiers soubresauts amoureux...

[Maya 維欣 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one baited me into thinking it sucked. After trudging my incredulous way through the hideously millennial melodrama of the first third or so, I just devoured the rest in one big bite and I feel like an idiot for ever judging the prose, which is actually constantly surprising and brilliant in a way I can’t even explain due to the fact I’m not built different like that. Thank you Skin Room for inflicting me with emotions I did NOT think were possible let alone legal.

Also note to self, 10/10 lesbian sex scene in here, buy your own copy you fool

[Paulina Rowińska · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Léa Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roman très touchant aux images fortes et abondantes. Certains passages sont un peu maladroits, peut être en raison de la traduction, mais ça ne m'a pas empêchée d'être complètement happée par le récit.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skin Room is a remarkable novel. Vividly and intensely written, if a bit claustrophobic. After a while I felt trapped, like I was stuck in an elevator with someone who couldn't stop whining about how lousy her life is. But Teresa's plight certainly draws the reader's sympathy, and once you get past the complaints, her story becomes engaging. Individual scenes and episodes are memorable and stand out. All in all, a excellent first book by a very talented writer.

[Margi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.