Hooper’s debut novel, the story is told via complex imagery and poetic language, using magical realist techniques to evoke the inner landscape of people reared in a hardscrabble time trying to make sense of their existence. Again and again.'Ĭarol Memmott's reviews also appear in the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.Etta and Otto and Russell and James is a novel by Emma Hooper, published in 2015. 'We're all scared, most of the time,' she writes. Its theme is neatly summed up in a letter from Etta to Otto. It's filled with magical realism, whimsy and the idea that you're never too old to take risks. The novel has a fairy-tale quality, one that lingers long after the story's dreamlike ending. There are tales of James' horrific experiences in World War II, Russell's life as a farmer and the childhood accident that mangled his leg.

Their hardscrabble lives growing up in Saskatchewan's rural Great Plains and surviving the Great Depression are exactingly told. This stirring, sparely written novel has a dreamy quality that tracks the characters' current journeys but also their travels into their memories. He bakes cinnamon buns, date squares and berry pies based on Etta's recipes and creates a menagerie of papier-mâché animals including deer, raccoons and narwhals. He waits at home for Etta's return, traveling with her through letters she sends and letters he writes but never sends. Russell, Etta's former lover, hits the road hoping to join her but detours north into a journey of his own. The novel also is about Otto's and Russell's life-changing actions, which are startlingly different from Etta's. Most important, he's a sounding board for Etta's ruminations and a giver of wise and practical advice. Her nearly constant companion from her Saskatchewan farm east toward the ocean is James, a talking coyote, who bolsters Etta's courage, protects her and provides her with physical and spiritual sustenance. Much like the aged protagonist in Rachel Joyce's 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,' Etta hardly seems able to embark on such an incredibly long trip, but she has help along the way.

The note says, 'I will try to remember to come back.'Įtta doesn't always remember who she is or why she's walking, but you'll never forget her or her wondrous adventure. In Emma Hooper's enchanting debut novel, 83-year-old Etta Gloria Kinnick leaves a note for her husband, Otto, then sets off on a 3,200-kilometer journey east across Canada. Fictional journeys toward enlightenment and self-discovery fill miles of book shelves, but few are as freshly told as the road trip traced in 'Etta and Otto and Russell and James.'

Etta and otto