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Seal Intestine Raincoat
After a severe winter storm and extended power failure, thousands become trapped in their homes during one of the coldest weeks of the year. For one small group of people, thrown together by catastrophe, a state of anxiety and claustrophobia follows as they discover no precautions have been made for a disaster of this magnitude. When the dark and cold continues, endurance turns to despair and plans for survival begin to emerge as Fred, a fifteen-year-old boy from England, is forced to take charge in unpredictable ways. Alongside its bleak portrayal of social instability during economic collapse, Seal Intestine Raincoat unearths the powerful human instincts that convert helpless fear into the desire to adapt.
- GenresCanada
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Rosie Chard
3 books7 followersRosie Chard grew up on the edge of the North Downs, a range of low hills south of London, England. She received her first degree in Anthropology and Environmental Biology from Oxford Brookes University, and later qualified as a landscape architect at the University of Greenwich. Chard practised in London and Copenhagen, Denmark, until she and her family emigrated to Canada in 2005. She now lives in Winnipeg where she divides her time between writing and garden design. Seal Intestine Raincoat is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 20, 2011
This review appeared in the April, 2011 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction. The original essay, which also discusses several other YA specualtive titles by Canadians, appears in its entirety on my Goodreads blog.
Notes on the 2010 Sunburst Award by Ursula Pflug
Chairing the Sunburst jury for the 2010 awards (for books published in 2009) coincided with leaving behind a lifelong cigarette habit. I contented myself with bits of teaching and editing and this and that. I had to prioritize it, everyone said, or the whole project would nosedive. If I didn’t write while I quit, so be it. What’s the rest of your life worth? So, in a way, the timing of the jury was a blessing. Unable to write, I could read all I wanted. Unable to really write, I drafted voluminous notes for books on my personal shortlist, especially for the YA category. I like to get more than one use out of a piece of writing when I can, and hence include below some of these notes, on occasion slightly revised. I think I drove my fellow jurors crazy. These favourites of my own all ended up not as finalists but as Honourable Mentions except for "Half World," which won the Sunburst for YA, and "Dragon Seer," which didn’t appear on any of our final lists.
Seal Intestine Raincoat
Seal Intestine Raincoat by Rosie Chard
“Seal Intestine Raincoat” is a beautifully written debut about one boy’s journey towards manhood and leadership. In his unassuming way Fred Forester learns about violent alcoholic men, girls, his own limits, planning, and what to do when middle-aged women crumple up. This is a dense, elegiac, little book somewhat reminiscent of Doris Lessing’s Memoir of a Survivor. The premise here is that the price of gas shoots up just prior to a snowmaggedon storm so severe it causes massive grid failure in the Canadian prairies as well as in border States. The youthful protagonist, recently transplanted from England with his parents, (as is true for the author) makes wry outsider’s observations about North American malls, subdivisions and Inuit folk, one of whom inspires Fred with his stories of growing up in sub zero temperatures without aid of electricity, gas powered vehicles or store bought groceries. During the group’s ordeal Fred often thinks back on Ata’s tales. They include valid tips which he employs: for instance the group is more likely to survive the deep cold if they sleep together in a canvas tent in the living room, making the best use of their own body heat. Along with the seal intestine coat, or anorak, Ata gifted to Fred, the tips are his touchstone, reminding him that others have survived fierce weather with fewer amenities.
I’m not sure we needed the skyrocketing gas prices; even without, would the affected population have been able to depart for warmer more electrified climes? I was often reminded of the ice storm in eastern Ontario in ‘98 and the stories I read or was told about people’s experiences during that extreme weather episode. This novel contained more or less the same thing, but on a smaller shorter scale. Is this book even spec fic? Beyond being told at the outset that we are three years into the future, there isn’t much of anything to let us know we’re not in the present. Maybe it’s Mundane SF: the problems SIR focuses on are real-world problems, extrapolated only a little; the scale and duration of the gas price hike and midwinter power failure outstrip anything we’ve experienced to date. One failing to me was the complete absence of technological solutions, but SIR is a microcosm describing one household’s journey; perhaps two blocks over a family rigged up bicycle powered generators to run their electric furnace or space heaters.
Notes on the 2010 Sunburst Award by Ursula Pflug
Chairing the Sunburst jury for the 2010 awards (for books published in 2009) coincided with leaving behind a lifelong cigarette habit. I contented myself with bits of teaching and editing and this and that. I had to prioritize it, everyone said, or the whole project would nosedive. If I didn’t write while I quit, so be it. What’s the rest of your life worth? So, in a way, the timing of the jury was a blessing. Unable to write, I could read all I wanted. Unable to really write, I drafted voluminous notes for books on my personal shortlist, especially for the YA category. I like to get more than one use out of a piece of writing when I can, and hence include below some of these notes, on occasion slightly revised. I think I drove my fellow jurors crazy. These favourites of my own all ended up not as finalists but as Honourable Mentions except for "Half World," which won the Sunburst for YA, and "Dragon Seer," which didn’t appear on any of our final lists.
Seal Intestine Raincoat
Seal Intestine Raincoat by Rosie Chard
“Seal Intestine Raincoat” is a beautifully written debut about one boy’s journey towards manhood and leadership. In his unassuming way Fred Forester learns about violent alcoholic men, girls, his own limits, planning, and what to do when middle-aged women crumple up. This is a dense, elegiac, little book somewhat reminiscent of Doris Lessing’s Memoir of a Survivor. The premise here is that the price of gas shoots up just prior to a snowmaggedon storm so severe it causes massive grid failure in the Canadian prairies as well as in border States. The youthful protagonist, recently transplanted from England with his parents, (as is true for the author) makes wry outsider’s observations about North American malls, subdivisions and Inuit folk, one of whom inspires Fred with his stories of growing up in sub zero temperatures without aid of electricity, gas powered vehicles or store bought groceries. During the group’s ordeal Fred often thinks back on Ata’s tales. They include valid tips which he employs: for instance the group is more likely to survive the deep cold if they sleep together in a canvas tent in the living room, making the best use of their own body heat. Along with the seal intestine coat, or anorak, Ata gifted to Fred, the tips are his touchstone, reminding him that others have survived fierce weather with fewer amenities.
I’m not sure we needed the skyrocketing gas prices; even without, would the affected population have been able to depart for warmer more electrified climes? I was often reminded of the ice storm in eastern Ontario in ‘98 and the stories I read or was told about people’s experiences during that extreme weather episode. This novel contained more or less the same thing, but on a smaller shorter scale. Is this book even spec fic? Beyond being told at the outset that we are three years into the future, there isn’t much of anything to let us know we’re not in the present. Maybe it’s Mundane SF: the problems SIR focuses on are real-world problems, extrapolated only a little; the scale and duration of the gas price hike and midwinter power failure outstrip anything we’ve experienced to date. One failing to me was the complete absence of technological solutions, but SIR is a microcosm describing one household’s journey; perhaps two blocks over a family rigged up bicycle powered generators to run their electric furnace or space heaters.
June 17, 2025
Given the way the situation of this book was described on the back, I was expecting something a lot more apocalyptic and with much longer lasting consequences. It's an interesting thought experiment about a situation that isn't 100% unbelievable, but so much of this book was just people sitting around thinking about things, with a bit of dialogue in between. So many of the characters didn't really do anything, and I cared so little about most of them because I don't really know them any better than when they first showed up. Fred is arguably the protagonist and even him I couldn't say I know "well", so much of all the characters was focused on how they were during the snowstorm with shockingly little backstory.
December 31, 2009
Let me preface this by saying that the week I read this book happened to be a very unseasonably cold week in autumn. Though there was no snow, it definitely felt like the dead of winter, this lent quite the atmosphere to the story. If I had read it in the middle of summer heat, I don't think it would have been nearly as interesting of an experience.
Having lived in a region where a situation like the one in "Seal Intestine Raincoat" is actually possible and plausible, I had a rather morbid interest in the storyline that unfolded. I fondly recalled the nights I spent in my childhood, warm in my house, watching the snow storming outside; cars struggling to drive through it, some abandoned on the side of the road. I would sit inside imagining the possibility of being completely snowed in, and unable to get out, snow piled to the top of the front door. It had seemed like an adventure. Until the one snow storm when the power went out, and stayed out for over 24 hours. At first, it was just an annoyance; no TV to watch, no computer to play on. As time went on though, as the hot water in the tank was used up, and food in the freezer started to defrost, the seriousness of the situation slowly started to sink in. Luckily, the snow stopped falling, and the power came back on not too long afterwards, and we were never faced with the actual problems we had imagined. Unfortunately, the characters in this story are not as lucky.
For the characters in "Seal Intestine Raincoat", when the winter snow storm starts, and the power goes out, they are faced with more than the obvious dilemmas about keeping warm, and meeting other basic needs. I found the storyline to actually be quite thought-provoking; I found myself wondering what I would have done in the situation, would I have been as charitable, and giving? At what point does your basic survival instinct win out over your moral values, and your sense of compassion and empathy for others? Could you ignore or turn away a stranger in need, knowing their likely fate is death if you do, in an attempt to try to protect your own family from the same fate?
The chilly basis of the storyline is the strength of the book, that propels it through some rather unnecessary information that sometimes detracts from, and confuses, the plot. Though the coldness of the weather while I read it probably added to it, I really felt at times as though I were freezing right along with them in the room. The desperation and fear of the characters as they struggle with the decreasing temperature in the house, and the reality of running out of food, is quite compelling. At times, I felt that desperation and fear jump off the page, and land uneasily in my stomach as I couldn't help feeling an inkling of it with them. Though, it is the quiet determination of Fred that keeps the story moving, and gives it a focal point.
My real only criticism of the book, as mentioned above, involves the excess descriptions, and unnecessary information that was thrown in. While description is important, it should feel natural, and woven seemlessly into the story. I felt in this case that a lot of it was distracting, and completely unnecessary to the story; it added absolutely nothing of substance to it, and made it drag at times. I kept waiting for the importance of some of this information to reveal itself, only to find out that it just wasn't important or necessary at all.
The height of this occurs at the end of the book in the Epilogue, where the author feels the need to explain the fate of every single character who appeared, if only for one sentence in the book, such as "the second woman at the checkout", and "the man in the red coat". This seemed strangely shoved into the storyline, as much of the excess description and unnecessary information that occured through-out the book involved the mention of or situation where these characters were (slightly) involved. This is likely why some of the descriptions in the book did not feel natural to the storyline; their mention feels too forced, as though they were kind of shoved into the story where they don't really belong. Being as they didn't actually figure into the story aside from the final mention in the epilogue, they do not add to it, and if anything, detract from it.
Overall, I found it to be a good book. It was not necessarily what I was expecting from the description, but I do not mean that in a bad way. Rather, I found in an overall sense that this book exceeded my expectations. Aside from my criticism above, I felt the plot was very tight, and unravelled at a natural pace that kept the story interesting. The issues that arose aside from the obvious problems you would expect are believable, relevant, and really added to the atmosphere of the novel. My main concern, and what I was expecting from the description, was that the story would drag on as the characters continued to deal with the situation. I was expecting it to play out in a predictable way, with a lot of redundancy as the same problems just continued. Instead, I was surprised to find the characters faced with other realistic, unpredictable situations and problems that added more substance to the story.
Having lived in a region where a situation like the one in "Seal Intestine Raincoat" is actually possible and plausible, I had a rather morbid interest in the storyline that unfolded. I fondly recalled the nights I spent in my childhood, warm in my house, watching the snow storming outside; cars struggling to drive through it, some abandoned on the side of the road. I would sit inside imagining the possibility of being completely snowed in, and unable to get out, snow piled to the top of the front door. It had seemed like an adventure. Until the one snow storm when the power went out, and stayed out for over 24 hours. At first, it was just an annoyance; no TV to watch, no computer to play on. As time went on though, as the hot water in the tank was used up, and food in the freezer started to defrost, the seriousness of the situation slowly started to sink in. Luckily, the snow stopped falling, and the power came back on not too long afterwards, and we were never faced with the actual problems we had imagined. Unfortunately, the characters in this story are not as lucky.
For the characters in "Seal Intestine Raincoat", when the winter snow storm starts, and the power goes out, they are faced with more than the obvious dilemmas about keeping warm, and meeting other basic needs. I found the storyline to actually be quite thought-provoking; I found myself wondering what I would have done in the situation, would I have been as charitable, and giving? At what point does your basic survival instinct win out over your moral values, and your sense of compassion and empathy for others? Could you ignore or turn away a stranger in need, knowing their likely fate is death if you do, in an attempt to try to protect your own family from the same fate?
The chilly basis of the storyline is the strength of the book, that propels it through some rather unnecessary information that sometimes detracts from, and confuses, the plot. Though the coldness of the weather while I read it probably added to it, I really felt at times as though I were freezing right along with them in the room. The desperation and fear of the characters as they struggle with the decreasing temperature in the house, and the reality of running out of food, is quite compelling. At times, I felt that desperation and fear jump off the page, and land uneasily in my stomach as I couldn't help feeling an inkling of it with them. Though, it is the quiet determination of Fred that keeps the story moving, and gives it a focal point.
My real only criticism of the book, as mentioned above, involves the excess descriptions, and unnecessary information that was thrown in. While description is important, it should feel natural, and woven seemlessly into the story. I felt in this case that a lot of it was distracting, and completely unnecessary to the story; it added absolutely nothing of substance to it, and made it drag at times. I kept waiting for the importance of some of this information to reveal itself, only to find out that it just wasn't important or necessary at all.
The height of this occurs at the end of the book in the Epilogue, where the author feels the need to explain the fate of every single character who appeared, if only for one sentence in the book, such as "the second woman at the checkout", and "the man in the red coat". This seemed strangely shoved into the storyline, as much of the excess description and unnecessary information that occured through-out the book involved the mention of or situation where these characters were (slightly) involved. This is likely why some of the descriptions in the book did not feel natural to the storyline; their mention feels too forced, as though they were kind of shoved into the story where they don't really belong. Being as they didn't actually figure into the story aside from the final mention in the epilogue, they do not add to it, and if anything, detract from it.
Overall, I found it to be a good book. It was not necessarily what I was expecting from the description, but I do not mean that in a bad way. Rather, I found in an overall sense that this book exceeded my expectations. Aside from my criticism above, I felt the plot was very tight, and unravelled at a natural pace that kept the story interesting. The issues that arose aside from the obvious problems you would expect are believable, relevant, and really added to the atmosphere of the novel. My main concern, and what I was expecting from the description, was that the story would drag on as the characters continued to deal with the situation. I was expecting it to play out in a predictable way, with a lot of redundancy as the same problems just continued. Instead, I was surprised to find the characters faced with other realistic, unpredictable situations and problems that added more substance to the story.
December 24, 2021
Weird because it’s about a family in december and it’s december now.
April 14, 2011
Won novel from goodreads giveways
6/10
I thought it was a good novel. Fred is a courageous and strong characters.
I really hated Rusty. I thought he was a very selfish man....Really curious of what happenned to him.
I found it slow at some points. I liked the epilogue. Showing a lot of different scenarios of what people went throught. I would have loved to see more of that throughtout the novel.
6/10
I thought it was a good novel. Fred is a courageous and strong characters.
I really hated Rusty. I thought he was a very selfish man....Really curious of what happenned to him.
I found it slow at some points. I liked the epilogue. Showing a lot of different scenarios of what people went throught. I would have loved to see more of that throughtout the novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews