The Full Catastrophe

by Méira Cook

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Mark Libin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cook's best novel yet. Warm and funny, with a very readable story. It's entertaining as a YA novel or as adult fiction. The story of Charlie Minkoff, a thirteen-year-old intersex boy, Jewish and living in Winnipeg. The story involves him trying to convince his aged grandfather, Oscar, to have a bar mitzvah since the Holocaust prevented him from having one at an appropriate age, but the focus is really on the very loving and supportive relationship between the two. Oscar loves Charlie more than anything, and is an irascibly funny old man who offers some of the most hilariously original takes on biblical commentary you will ever read. Cook's ear for dialogue is pitch perfect, and she balances humour and poignancy deftly so the humour never seems glib, and the poignant parts never seem shmaltzy.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose this is a coming-of-age story, although it’s unclear whether Charlie does much growing up; but never mind, we’re with him all the way, cheering him along as he finds his way through the full catastrophe of being 13 years old, intersex, functionally parentless, disillusioned, frustrated and Jewish (although he apparently doesn’t qualify for a Bar Mitzvah).
There’s a lot of ground covered here: from genetics to installation art to the reality of aging to arguments with God — to one of the longest (and probably the most humorous) sermons you’re likely to encounter. We also meet a small cast of memorable characters and what has to be the most hopeless excuse for a dog, one that manages to be simultaneously disgusting and ridiculous, a creature that only a boy could love.
Lots to celebrate as well: Weeza, a long-haul trucker: ”I’m at a truck stop outside Spokane. Been driving all night in a sort of fatigue state between sensory deprivation and sensory overload. Can actually feel thoughts streaming by like red taillights in the dark. Not thoughts, sensations: whiff of diesel, shunt of wheels over concrete, burn of chew tobacco against gums. On and on, on and on. Crackle of radio fading in and out of local stations, wipers knocking drizzle across glass. After a while the highway becomes this blazing white birth canal pushing me forwards. By the time I pull into Darlene’s truck stop (pneumatic hiss of brakes, goose honk of air horn, drag of a million tons of inertia) I’m born again into the silence at the side of the road, into dawn seeping out over an industrial plant, into the homey funk of whatever Darlene’s been frying up for breakfast. Hallelujah and draw up a chair!”
Or Oscar’s experience of old age: Time was an old man with a limp, full of aches and pains, eyes so wrecked that even hindsight was a blur. Time was the sound of footsteps following him down the corridor to the bathroom. Three, four times a night, his old man’s bladder kaput. But mostly, time was the death’s head grinning at him as he sat at his wife’s dresser, peering into the glass. He was losing weight, bones hollowing out, flesh disintegrating. Only his memory was heavy and growing heavier by the day.
What it all boils down to is a search for identity, a need for answers — which is what a lot of us find ourselves doing. Méira Cook is a writer entirely new to me but one I will surely seek out again.

[Joyce Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was hard not to fall in love with Charlie, a 13 year old who has to navigate a complicated life. Born to an absent artist who becomes mute mother, a runaway father and into the living arms of his grandfather, Charlie has to figure things out. He has been born intersex, with no clear answers as to his gender (he identifies as male), no answers as to his history and fear of a future. There are many kind people in his life, many cruel ones and the ambivalent.

[Mary Northrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlie is born with intersex characteristics. He's having a terrible time in school, his mother is often absent, and his main goal is to make sure his 90-year-old grandfather can have the bar mitzvah he missed because of the Holocaust. With quirky characters, a unique setting, and the form (emails, school projects, and writing on the wall -- how he communicates with his mom), this novel is funny, poignant, and moving.

[Steph VanderMeulen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book immensely! It's profoundly thoughtful, the characterization is superb, and the writing is skillful, which is typical Méira. And the humour!! An excellent co-driver with the tenderly wrought struggle of identity and belonging.

[Terri Epp · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Claire Ross]

Beautiful, emotional book, written with so much feeling and also humour. Wonderfully three-dimensional characters, too. A lovely read.