'Soucouyant' by David Chariandy - Book Review

Nominated for numerous awards, David Chariandy's debut novel Soucouyant is an excellently crafted piece of writing that tells a compelling story of a struggling family and a search for personal grounding. At the same time, the book explores much greater questions of culture, history and memory. Although the novel is set in modern Scarborough the story spans decades and countries - the title is a word from Caribbean folklore - and will speak to Canadians from many generations and backgrounds.

A young man returns to the house where he grew up and finds many things as he left them two years ago - trains still shake the foundations when they pass, Lake Ontario can still be heard slapping at the Scarborough Bluffs, and his mother is still struggling to function with advanced dementia.

Some things have changed though, most notably the young woman who has taken up residence in his bedroom and cares for his mother. As the man tries to find his place with this inexplicable pair, he also tries to find his place in his own skin. Old stories seep into the present through his mother's jumbled memories and the young man's reflections - his mother's youth in Trinidad, her move to Canada, and his memories of growing up in Toronto not only as the son of immigrants, but as the son of a woman further maligned for losing her grip on the world before he was even born.

Chariandy's writing style is clean and crisp with poetic hints throughout. Especially key to this novel is his ability to write distinct voices for his character's dialogue. The book is filled with language in transition - either being learned or forgotten - and all of it rings true.

The most impressive part of Soucouyant is how seamlessly Chariandy blends the many themes, thoughts and storylines. There could have easily been at least three separate books written along these same lines - one about living with a parent with dementia, another about immigrating to a new country, and yet another about growing up as a first-generation Canadian. But all of this and much more is found in the pages of Chariandy's first novel, made inseparable through his skilled telling.

Raised in Scarborough, David Chariandy now lives in Vancouver where he is an Assistant Professor in the English Department of Simon Fraser University. Along with his teaching and academic writing, he co-founded Commodore Books - "the first and only black literary press in western Canada" - with Wayde Compton and Karina Vernon.

Soucouyant was Chariandy's first novel. According to his profile on the Simon Fraser University website, his second novel is called Brother and will be published by McClelland & Stewart.

The house where most of the present-day action takes place is in a fictional neighbourhood called Port Junction, by the very real Scarborough Bluffs. In an email interview with Kit Dobson for the journal Callaloo, Chariandy was asked about his imagined area of the city and replied "Port Junction, as I envisioned it, is not unlike the Port Union where I grew up, which is located at the easternmost edge of Scarborough."

There are other Toronto locations mentioned in the book - including a memorable encounter at the Kensington Market of the 1960's - but the heart of the book is both in Scarborough and in the Caribbean, and even more so in the distance in between.

Sources:
Dobson, Kit "Spirits of Elsewhere Past: A Dialouge on Soucouyant", Callaloo - Volume 30, Number 3, Summer 2007.
- Have a Toronto Library card? You can access the whole interview online at eLibrary Canada via the Toronto Public Library's Magazine and Newspaper article search.