Like Son of a Trickster, there is a powerful story here. It’s not that I think Monkey Beach is bad or even poorly written. While she travels, she ruminates upon her life to date, and we relive it through a series of (mostly) linear flashbacks that shed light on Lisa’s relationships with Jimmy, her parents, her uncle, her grandmother, and the kids she grew up. She finds herself drawn to the eponymous Monkey Beach, so named for the history of b'gwus (sasquatch) sightings on or near the island. After her parents leave their small community to coordinate the search, Lisa decides to strike off on her own in her dad’s powerboat. Nineteen-year-old Lisamarie Hill’s younger brother, Jimmy, has gone missing while on a commercial fishing trip off the coast of B.C. Trigger warning in this book for rape I mention it (in very general terms) much later on this review. Rather, Robinson’s style is different here from Son of a Trickster, and I just can’t stop comparing this one unfavourably to it.

Yet I don’t think that mindset is what soured me on Monkey Beach. I don’t know as the end of the year approaches I’ve very much been yearning for fluffier or at least more upbeat fiction rather than so-called “serious” stuff. Which I bought, mind you, a month or two prior, but it was finally a friend/former coworker reading it and wanting my opinion that galvanized me. So here I am, at the end of 2017, finally reading Monkey Beach. But, of course, wanting and actually getting around to it are two different things. Almost a year ago I read Eden Robinson’s new novel, Son of a Trickster, and I immediately wanted to read more of her stuff.

Monkey beach by eden robinson