The style is also eccentric: no punctuation used for speech, for instance. At times the characters become confused so that one is sharing the experiences of the other. The narrative is arranged like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scattered all over a table you have to put the picture together for yourself. The story is set before, during and a long time after the Second World War. One morning Etta, aged eighty two, leaves a note and sets off on a solitary walk because she needs to see ‘the water’. The isolated farmsteads, the wind and dust suggest the Midwest but no, we’re in Saskatchewan. Initially I was confused by the location. Etta, Otto and Russell are in their eighties, yet still in a love triangle going back years. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.This is a remarkable first novel from Emma Hooper. This article was originally published in the January 2015 issue of BookPage. Perfectly crafted and endearing in its unpredictability, Etta and Otto and Russell and James pulls readers along with every page turn. Inspired by a piece of her own family history, the author examines with creativity the consequences of great love and loss, blurring the lines between memory, illusion and reality. In the present, Otto’s memories of the war come to the forefront as he copes with Etta’s absence.Įmma Hooper’s debut is intelligent, moving and captivating.
As Otto serves abroad, Etta looks after Russell, and the two become more reliant on one another. Layered alongside Etta’s journey is Otto’s trip across the Atlantic at age 17 to fight during World War II. From there, the novel-still told partially in letters-alternates between the characters’ early years to Etta’s current-day cross-country journey, revealing how the trio met, what drives them, and how their lives became so intimately interwoven. The setting quickly shifts to the early 1930s, where we meet young Otto and his 16-member family of farmers Etta, who lives in town with her parents and sister and Russell, a displaced orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle next door to Otto. Otto, hands trembling, decides not to follow. In the letter, Etta tells Otto that she will try to remember to come back, a hint at her failing memory. Etta has left the couple’s farm in Saskatchewan to walk more than 3,000 kilometers to see the ocean. The novel opens with a letter from 83-year-old Etta to her husband, Otto. Etta and Otto and Russell and James is at once alluring and unexpected.
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