Review by Jen McNeely

In A Nutshell: It’s 1981 in Toronto and 19 year old Kate McLeod leaves the hot garbage stink of Parkdale to work as a porter aboard a Great Lake freighter; a most grueling job consisting of pot scrubbing, potato peeling and airing out the laundry of unkept sailors. A summer job to pay for art school becomes an adventure and exploration into the rough landscapes of wild waters, tumultuous relationships and the current of life amongst hard lived seamen. Though not a typical place for a girl with soft skin and perky bosom, Kate toils away and meets the steel tough surroundings with tenacious force, both fueled and soothed by the lens of her camera, her youthful sexual desires and laced in cigarette smoke and vodka. She learns the value of a hard day’s work and is introduced to gritty folk who opt for cod jigging, as opposed to drooling over Princess Diana. Pulling into desolate forgotten port towns lined with sleazy strip bars and primal men, Kate evolves from an apathetic pajama clad drifter into a young woman with the kind of strength that can split the waves and whose character deepens and rocks with a new found life that proves much more raw and honest then the girl she left on land.

Three Words to Describe it: Rough, Passionate, Human

Indicative Quotes: “There was grit stuck to her bare feet and the air smelled of socks. She noticed a blood-stained tampon sitting on one of the scraps and remembered him pulling it out of her, like a cork out of a bottle.”

“It was a man’s town. Even at eleven at night, the harbour roared with jostling vehicles, pickup trucks, transports, dump trucks and forklifts, their lights like angry monster eyes.”

“It had a derelict air, the kind of house neighbourhood children would populate with ghosts or killers.”

“Even classical music would have been better than her father’s driving soundtrack, the Sunday morning news programs on the CBC, which were always turned up too loud, like some kind of psychological torture.”

Reason I Liked It:When so many young girls chase glamour as a means for adventure, Kate grabs life by the balls and finds it in the most daunting and unwelcoming places. I admire her sense of adventure and ability to shake off the dirty lures and misogynist behaviour of well traveled sailors and, equally impressive, her interest in befriending worn to the bone cranky old birds.

At nineteen, you don’t know what life is going to hit you with; you barely know who you are and the best way to fight the confusion amongst this time of growth is to walk into unknown territory. I can’t say that I had the guts or even the thought to tackle myself by serving miners in Northern Ontario, or cleaning rooms for loggers in interior BC. Quite the opposite to little Miss McLeod, at nineteen I discovered my true nature amidst the epicenter of New York City; drinking with strangers, studying film and fucking older men to spite my mother’s warnings. I admire Kate’s decision to thumb her nose at the conservative parents and the gloss of city lights for a more rumbling and uncharted journey.

Beyond my immediate bonding with the young protagonist, I quite enjoyed the lively sex scenes, the references to Toronto (streetcars, garbage stink, Gardiner Expressway, Polish restaurants on Roncesvalles), I was brought back to 1981 with accuracy; (not long ago but long enough that women were seen and treated differently) and to a pace of life staggered by pay phones and handwritten letters.

Book Club Ideas: Find an old abandoned ship and head down there at night with some candles, bottle of vodka and two packs of smokes. Pack some thrown together corned beef sandwiches and take turns reading as you listen to the waves slap against the teetering, creaky old ship. Alternatively, if you don’t feel like getting arrested for trespassing – go down to Captain Johns boat (at it’s heyday in the early 80’s) and talk about how you wish you were nineteen again over eight bottles of beer and some sub par fish and chips.

Verdict: This is a novel for young girls trying to find their path in life, it’s for women who have found it and know the pains of getting there and for all of us who prefer a drink with bite to a light fruity cocktail. Sailor Girl is a gritty Canadian story that intertwines rough landscapes with hard work, gritty humour, truculent fucking and family turmoil; a turbulent story that reads poetically smooth. Olson’s use of language and imagery flows beautifully while still leaving you with plenty of sting. Leave your shopping bags at home, and save the whining about your non-fat, double soy WTF latte for another occasion; this is as real as life gets.

Buy this book for: Yourself, your best friend, your little sister heading off to university.