I have never been to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, but reading Hilary Scharper’s Perdita has made me want to add it to my list of places to visit. The author has described her novel as ‘eco-gothic’, which I think refers to elements of nature almost taking the role of characters in the story (think of the fog in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House or the moors in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights) and she certainly does bring the beauty and atmosphere of her Canadian setting to life in Perdita.
The novel opens with Garth Hellyer of the Longevity Project collecting information on some of Canada’s oldest people. Having heard about some remarkable claims made by a woman called Marged Brice, Garth is visiting her in her nursing home in the hope of discovering the truth. Marged insists that she is 134 years old, but surely that can’t be right? Garth is cynical, but when Marged tells him that she is ready to die but can’t because of a mysterious presence known as ‘Perdita’ holding her back, he is intrigued enough to agree to hear her story.
Marged gives Garth some of her old journals, which he takes home to read, and through these the story of Marged’s life unfolds. In 1897, when her diaries begin, she is a young woman of nineteen living at Cape Prius on the Bruce Peninsula where her father is working as the lighthouse keeper. It can be a lonely place in the winter but comes alive in the summer when visitors begin to arrive. Among the summer visitors are the Stewarts, a wealthy family with two sons, one of whom – George – is a talented painter. With her own interest in art, Marged finds herself drawn to George, but will he ever return her feelings? And anyway, would Marged ever be able to leave the landscape she loves so much – the landscape which has become such an integral part of her life?
Well, circumstances dictate that Marged does have to leave her beloved bay behind, at least for a short period, while she spends some time in Toronto with her mother. By the time she returns she has changed and grown as a person; her world has widened, she has met different people – including Andrew Reid, a young doctor – and she has experienced things she would never have been exposed to on the peninsula. The rest of the novel follows the ups and downs of Marged’s relationships with George, with Andrew and with her environment, as well as exploring the presence of Perdita and who or what she really is. We also follow Garth in the modern day as he is reunited with an old friend, Clare, who helps him to make sense of Marged’s claims.
You won’t be surprised to hear that I preferred the historical storyline to the present day one. It’s not very often that I would say the opposite! Marged’s story was much more compelling, full of life and passion and emotion; Garth’s story, in comparison, felt as though it had been created just because a framing narrative was needed. He and Clare didn’t feel like real, fully-developed people to me and every time we returned to their storyline, I just wanted to get back to Marged and her diaries.
I liked the Perdita and longevity aspects of the story, which bring in some elements of mythology and some literary allusions, but I was less convinced by the blending of the real and the supernatural. For me, Perdita was a collection of intriguing ideas that, as a whole, I couldn’t quite manage to love. It seems to be Hilary Scharper’s only novel (although she has written a book of short stories on a very different subject) but if she writes another in the ‘eco-gothic’ genre, I would probably be interested in reading it.
She Reads Novels 
Why Perdita I wonder? Is it just happenstance or should we be looking for parallels with The Winter’s Tale and ideas of rebirth? The other Canadian set novel where the setting is very much a character is Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News. Wonderful book, but don’t ever see the film!
Yes, the novel discusses a few different theories to explain the significance of Perdita, and the connection with The Winter’s Tale is one of them. I haven’t read or seen The Shipping News, so thanks for the advice!
Until I got to the end of your review, I just wanted to start reading Perdita. What an intriguing premise! Will authors ever get past this trend of two story lines? Today I will post my review of a novelist that did it exceedingly well: The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar.
It seems that one storyline just isn’t enough these days. I do still think this book is worth reading, but the modern day narrative could have been so much better. The Map of Salt and Stars sounds great! 🙂
This sounds intriguing and the setting sounds interesting.
Yes, I loved the setting. I don’t seem to read many books set in Canada.
Yeah, me neither. I need to pay more attention to Naomi’s Consumed by Books site. She reads lots of Canadian lit.
I’d prefer it if this book were written in just one timeline; I get tired of jumping back and forth between the present and the past. But I do love the name Perdita. 🙂
Perdita is a beautiful name, isn’t it? I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it had just concentrated on the historical timeline.
Usually I more often prefer the modern storyline, actually, but here, in this novel, I’m with you. And the Bruce Peninsula is (so far) my favourite place in Canada: so much water, so many rocks. Just gorgeous. And all the ship-wrecks for tragic romance. I would love to live there!
With my interest in history, I usually prefer the historical storyline, although there have been a few exceptions. The Bruce Peninsula does sound gorgeous!
I love the idea of eco-Gothic – I think I prefer brooding nature to ruined castles on the whole. Pity about the framing device – as you know, I’m not a big fan of the double timeline in so many contemporary novels either.
There are some authors who handle the double timeline structure quite effectively, but in most cases I wish they would just stick to one or the other (usually the historical one).