"I predict that once beyond sleepy Oak Park, Ernest will dedicate himself to living well. He seems a natural for it."
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The Canary by Michael Loyd Gray Bottom Dog Press
book review by Susan J. Illis
Based on an imagined friendship between Amelia Earhart and Ernest Hemingway that would have occurred when they were both teenagers living in Chicago, this novel, told from Earhart's point of view, alternates between poem-like stream of consciousness and prose reminiscences of their encounters in Chicago during the 1914-1915 school year. The verse provides an account of Earhart's experiences after her airplane crash lands in the Pacific, on an island she initially names Fred Noonan Island, then later changes to Amelia Island. Her waning days, after the death of her navigator Fred Noonan, are spent searching for water and fending off crabs. In between those pursuits, she thinks not of her husband or family, but of a young man she had not seen in over twenty years (but probably could have, considering the fame each achieved).
Nonetheless, the remembrances of her encounters with Hemingway, whom she met at a diner near her home in Hyde Park, are far more entertaining than the poetic interludes. Author Gray captures the awkwardness that is adolescence, imbuing their friendship with a sentimentality that their actions belie. Amelia, two years older and in Chicago for only one year to finish high school, has no real friends other than the younger, lifelong Chicagoan Ernest. The dialog is often repetitive and choppy, perhaps by design to show their self-consciousness. While the young Ernest created by Gray hints at the man he will become—with his interests in reading, writing, athletics, and outdoor pursuits, the young Amelia shows no interest in aviation. A fascinating premise, well-executed by Gray.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review