July Book Club: The Doublewide

The Doublewide, by Ann Goethals, is billed as a "feel-good coming of age novel." I would say it get there eventually, but to start off with it's... hard. Hard to read, that is.

The main character of The Doublewide is Candy Schein. She's had a hard life, and her self-esteem is a match for her history. Candy was abandoned by her mother, raised by a grandfather who is no longer able to care for himself, and her brother left town the instant he graduated from high school. She has no friends other than the people she work with at her grandfather's nursing home, whom she calls 'work friends.' Those aren't the kind of friends who have your number in their phone, according to Candy.

Candy lives in a 'shit' apartment, and she is overweight. Being overweight is a big thing inside her mind. Through her inner monologue, we learn that she has given up on the traditional goals of life. There is one thing she wants, though -- she wants her own home.

She's been saving up, and one night she drives past a sale lot and notice a blue doublewide trailer at the back edge of the property. It has been damaged, which makes Candy think maybe she could afford it, so she stops in to take a look. Then she obsesses over the colour. It's blue, but what kind of blue exactly?

Then she obsesses over the damage. The salesman said something about a waranty, but just how big is that crack? Then she obsesses over the beautifull, bright sunlight coming in from the window and how beautiful it is and how much she wants it. Yet, when the salesperson says he can give her a deal, she flees, and has to talk herself into the purchase.

The whole book is written in third person limited point of view, and in past tense so that there is distance between what we read and what we feel. In places, this is uncomfortable. She's not a partiularlly appealing character. To be honest, if it wasn't for this book club, I might have set this book aside. Not because it is bad. More because getting past Candy's semi-depression is work, and I have a large TBR pile, so work isn't necessarily what I am looking for in a novel. And then...

Candy buys the trailer. She sets it up on her father's land, and then she meets a construction worker who will do the repairs. Turns out his mother is in Candy's care. They start to interract. Candy is nervous living out on her own, but gaining confidence. She is making friends. Purchasing the trailer is starting to have a positive domino effect in her life.

Her photographer brother hears that she bought the trailer and sends her a framed, colour photograph as a gift. Normally, her brother only takes black and white photos, but he knows how much Candy likes colour, so this one is in colour. She remembers what he always said about black and white photography:

He had said he was interested in shadows, and in the way the more you looked at something, the more things came to light. The more you really saw.

"It's your eyes getting used to the dark. But not in the real world, in the picture. My pictures make you look, really look. No one ever really looks. I want people to really see things. Hunt for them and see them."

More than anything else, more than a coming of age story, that quote describes this book. The character is starting to look at the world differently, and the readers are looking at the character differently. Yet, there is also a dichotomy here. Because Candy's photo is not in black and white; it's in colour. Which means, she doesn't have to look so hard to appreciate what she sees.

Candy continues to grow. She is given a dog. She realizes she has ignored the other workers and tries to learn from the oversight. She brings her grandfather home for Christmas dinner. She has a man over at New Years. The subterranean loneliness that pervades her character in the beginning of this novel has been lightened.

I think if you read this book in literature class, you could make a lot of connections to the power of home. You could make connections to the nature of family. You could also make connections to the power that comes with fulfilling even the simplest of personal goals. If you did, you would be right. This book is about all of that. More essentially, though, this is the story of a woman who is standing in the shadows, but she is really starting to see.

If you can get through the first third of this book, I recommend it. The novel is beautifully written, and the voice is quite unique. The pace is gentle; it moves along slowly -- much like transformation.

Because of its easy moving pace, there are moments of poignancy that jump off the pages. What Candy is discovering, the reader gets to ponder. And the more you peer into the shadows, the more there is to see.