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The Spoon Asylum
The Spoon Asylum draws its title from a group of 1930s exiles who found refuge in a small northern Ontario resort and bonded while playing jazz and polishing the resort's cutlery together on Sunday afternoons. In the story, the Great Depression is at its peak in Davisville when a train delivering salt cod to the impoverished prairies comes chugging into town and expels its cargo of disillusioned young men who have taken to riding the rails in search of work. Haven Cattrell is determined to leave Davisville just as soon as he has a little money. But work is scarce in the small community and only a chance meeting between Haven and Wetherby Moss, an American jazz musician from Detroit, keeps Haven from striking out again. It is Wetherby who puts Haven in touch with Eleanor Nokomis, an eccentric woman who runs an all-girls camp on Lake Manito. Here Haven is hired as a cook's assistant and the cook happens to be Wetherby's son, Jude Moss. It is here at Camp Nokomis that Haven's life-changing adventure begins.
Listening to Wetherby play the reveille on his trumpet in the mornings and his jazz licks at night conjures a desire in Haven that he didn't know was there. Jazz catches him quite by surprise and after insistently begging Wetherby to teach him to play, Haven begins his apprenticeship, first with a harmonica and then with the trumpet itself. During the course of his work and musical education, Haven befriends Wetherby, Jude, Charlotte Handler, a camp girl, and Marcus -- a young man who had been riding the train. Together they form a raffish group of misfits, rebels, and outsiders coaxing jazz out of whatever instruments they can scrounge.
What follows is a series of adventures that unfold around Wetherby Moss and his son, and the forces of racism that drove them out of Detroit to this asylum in the northern woods. That racism finds its way to Davisville, spurring on a small band of troublemakers from a nearby boys' camp who disapprove of the two black men and a Jewish girl in the camp. The harassment and bigotry culminates in their prank of a cross burning. Unsettling to all, but especially to Charlotte, Haven and his friends are caught in both personal and public events that threaten the well-being of Camp Nokomis and have grave consequences for some. Haven and Charlotte, who have begun a budding romance, are witness to the destruction and death that follow, all the while holding tight to their dream of playing jazz.
Listening to Wetherby play the reveille on his trumpet in the mornings and his jazz licks at night conjures a desire in Haven that he didn't know was there. Jazz catches him quite by surprise and after insistently begging Wetherby to teach him to play, Haven begins his apprenticeship, first with a harmonica and then with the trumpet itself. During the course of his work and musical education, Haven befriends Wetherby, Jude, Charlotte Handler, a camp girl, and Marcus -- a young man who had been riding the train. Together they form a raffish group of misfits, rebels, and outsiders coaxing jazz out of whatever instruments they can scrounge.
What follows is a series of adventures that unfold around Wetherby Moss and his son, and the forces of racism that drove them out of Detroit to this asylum in the northern woods. That racism finds its way to Davisville, spurring on a small band of troublemakers from a nearby boys' camp who disapprove of the two black men and a Jewish girl in the camp. The harassment and bigotry culminates in their prank of a cross burning. Unsettling to all, but especially to Charlotte, Haven and his friends are caught in both personal and public events that threaten the well-being of Camp Nokomis and have grave consequences for some. Haven and Charlotte, who have begun a budding romance, are witness to the destruction and death that follow, all the while holding tight to their dream of playing jazz.
233 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2018
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September 24, 2018
The Spoon Asylum, written by Caroline Misner and published by Thistledown Press is a fun and thoughtful piece of historical fiction that lets the reader laugh, while also reflecting on the ugly parts of Canada’s past that modern Canadians do not like to think about.
Set in the 1930s at the peak of the Great Depression in the small Ontario town of Davisville, The Spoon Asylum follows the story of young Haven Cattrell, a precocious seventeen-year-old boy who is struggling find his identity and is hungry to prove his worth as a man to his family and to the world. While working as a farmhand on his grandmother’s farm, Haven comes across a vagrant who is looking for work in exchange for some food and shelter, although the man is met with downright hostility by his grandmother, Haven cannot help but be enthralled by the man, and even more so by his harmonica and the sweet music that he plays through it. This exchange with the mysterious vagrant inspires Haven to go into town in search of work, himself. Perhaps this decision was the product of youthful pride, or perhaps to allow Haven to enter a piece of his father’s world, who like many Canadians at the time was also a desperate drifter in search of employment.
Haven’s noble journey is soon sidetracked by the brash, soaring melodies of a trumpet. It is here that Haven meets Wetherby Moss, an African-American jazz musician working as a cook with his son Jude, who is also a musician, for a prestigious girl’s camp near Haven’s home. The camp is run by Miss Nokomis, a “real Ojibwa priestess” who oversees the camp with a stern grasp and is not all that she appears to be.
The novel continues to follow Haven’s summer working with the musicians and learning to play and love jazz music with the help of his two new, dear friends. It is not just of jazz that Haven learns at this camp, but also of the sad, unjust treatment that African Americans of his time suffered. Haven, being the naïve boy that he is, does not understand how his friends could be subject to such treatment. As Haven learns of the implications of racism, he also traverses the uncertainty and pain of love and heartbreak as the reader watches him develop into a young man.
Misner crafts this story with dialogue that is chock-full of wit and intellect. Despite its heavy topics, it was a book that made me laugh out loud on several occasions. In addition to this, I found it to be quite a light read, with perfect pacing and a coherent story line never bogged down by unnecessary details or pedantic writing. It is a book that both the twelve-year-old and the sixty-year-old in your family can both enjoy equally. In conclusion, The Spoon Asylum is Canadian historical fiction at its finest and a beautifully crafted story from start to finish.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
FOR OTHER BOOK REVIEWS AND MORE PLEASE VISIT WWW.SOAPBOXSTORIES.BLOG
Set in the 1930s at the peak of the Great Depression in the small Ontario town of Davisville, The Spoon Asylum follows the story of young Haven Cattrell, a precocious seventeen-year-old boy who is struggling find his identity and is hungry to prove his worth as a man to his family and to the world. While working as a farmhand on his grandmother’s farm, Haven comes across a vagrant who is looking for work in exchange for some food and shelter, although the man is met with downright hostility by his grandmother, Haven cannot help but be enthralled by the man, and even more so by his harmonica and the sweet music that he plays through it. This exchange with the mysterious vagrant inspires Haven to go into town in search of work, himself. Perhaps this decision was the product of youthful pride, or perhaps to allow Haven to enter a piece of his father’s world, who like many Canadians at the time was also a desperate drifter in search of employment.
Haven’s noble journey is soon sidetracked by the brash, soaring melodies of a trumpet. It is here that Haven meets Wetherby Moss, an African-American jazz musician working as a cook with his son Jude, who is also a musician, for a prestigious girl’s camp near Haven’s home. The camp is run by Miss Nokomis, a “real Ojibwa priestess” who oversees the camp with a stern grasp and is not all that she appears to be.
The novel continues to follow Haven’s summer working with the musicians and learning to play and love jazz music with the help of his two new, dear friends. It is not just of jazz that Haven learns at this camp, but also of the sad, unjust treatment that African Americans of his time suffered. Haven, being the naïve boy that he is, does not understand how his friends could be subject to such treatment. As Haven learns of the implications of racism, he also traverses the uncertainty and pain of love and heartbreak as the reader watches him develop into a young man.
Misner crafts this story with dialogue that is chock-full of wit and intellect. Despite its heavy topics, it was a book that made me laugh out loud on several occasions. In addition to this, I found it to be quite a light read, with perfect pacing and a coherent story line never bogged down by unnecessary details or pedantic writing. It is a book that both the twelve-year-old and the sixty-year-old in your family can both enjoy equally. In conclusion, The Spoon Asylum is Canadian historical fiction at its finest and a beautifully crafted story from start to finish.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
FOR OTHER BOOK REVIEWS AND MORE PLEASE VISIT WWW.SOAPBOXSTORIES.BLOG
Displaying 1 of 1 review