4

First novel up for prestigious literary awards

_ Katharine Hamer
News Reporter kbamer@nsnews.com

THE first thing you notice about Eden
Robinson is her laugh: a great big giggle
that sneaks out of her at the slightest
provocation.

“It drives my agent crazy,” she confides. “She
told me I’m supposed to be a serious, literary
writer.” .

If her laughter gives the wrong impression to

. high-minded crities, her work certainly hasn’t: for a

_young writer, Robinson has been spectacularly suc-
cessful. ;

«Monkey Beach, the 32-year-old’s first novel, has
just been nominated for Canada’s most prestigious
literary honours: the Giller Prize and the Governor
.. General’s Award — alongside such luminaries as
~~ Michael Ondaatie and Margaret Atwood.

: Her first collection of stories, Traplines, has

already won the Winifred Holtby prize for best first

work of fiction in the Commonwealth, and was

chosen as a New York Times Editor’s Choice and

« Notable Book of the Year.

It’s along way from Kitamaat Village, the small
town in northern B.C. where Robinson grew up.

She left town at 18, because “I was completely
unsuitable for a lot of the jobs that were available

~ up there.”

“After ovo creative writing degrees, Robinson

>: took a gamble and sent her Traplines manuscript to
literary agent Denise Bukowski in Toronto, Her
‘timing was pertect: the book followed a wave of
critical successes by Canadian women writers: Anne

rayons Hav
Met Their Match

- 106% Asvzylic formulation

Marie McDonald, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Dionne
Brand. Traplines was published in 1996.

Monkey Beach is set in Kitamaat, and tells the
story of Lisamarie and her family. There’s brother
Jimmy, aiming for Olympic gold in swimming, who
goer missing at sea; her disenchanted activist uncle
Mick; her stubborn grandmother, Ma-ma-oo, who
lives in an old house by herself and recounts ghost
stories.

The book smells of the north, and of the sea.
It’s a coming-of-age story, and — although this was
never a conscious decision on Robinson's part —
it’s also redolent with the sorrows of generations of
First Nations families: the legacy of politics, of alco-
holism, of residential schools.

Like Lisamarie, Robinson is part Haisla and part
Heilsuk. Unlike Lisamarie, she’s not “a bit ofa
tomboy. I'd like to say Iam, but I like my creature
comforts. My dad used to be a trapper and a fisher-
man, and he would take us out on the weekends.
He'd take us up to Kitlope and Monkey Beach, and
it never dawned on me not to bring my hairdryer.”

Some other facts about Eden: Her muse is
Marvin the Martian, the cartoon character. Sir
Walter Scott’s mansion reminded her of Graceland.
The most caffeine she ever ingested in a 24-hour
period was two pots of coffee, two litres of Pepsi
Max, one can of Diet Coke and three cups of tea.
She used to eavesdrop on people's conversations on
the Hastings bus. :

She wrote Monkey Beach during her three year
stay in North Vancouver —~ at the International
Plaza Towers — “My first real apartment, the one

See Monkey page 20

with Teflon Surface Pretector

Dla y,

Friday, October 27, 2000 — North Shore News - 13

DENYS ARCAND: 16 |

RANDY BACHMAN: 19

— CHRISTIAN BRUYERE: 21 |
CANDACE BUSHNELL: 26

NEWS photo Mike Wakoflela

EDEN Robinson wrote Monkey Beach in North Vancouver. The book has
been nominated for the Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award.

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