If your life smacks of boredom and sameness filled with ordinary people, you need to read Eddy, Eddy. I wanted to invite these characters to a dinner party and, although this in itself would be entertaining, adding the animals featured in the story to the guest list would guarantee comic relief. So entirely did the novel’s characters capture my heart that the moment its author, Kate De Goldi, was confirmed for the Queenstown Writers Festival my hand shot up to volunteer to interview her.
At the centre of the story is teenager Eddy Smallbone, who makes money walking dogs around the neighbourhoods of post-earthquake Christchurch after an unfortunate but hilarious school expulsion. Eddy’s Uncle Brain (the spelling messed with my mind) is a well-read research librarian who constantly tries to educate his orphaned nephew. Brain’s house is regularly filled with Brain’s quirky friends, who all influence Eddy’s life in different ways.
Although his life sounds tragic, I never felt anything but warmth and empathy for Eddy and the quirky characters (and animals) that are part of his life.
Kate has said novels cannot be categorised for a particular audience, and this is certainly true for Eddy, Eddy. There is an endearing love story, but it also deals with friendship and grief and their effects on a teenager trying to make sense of his world. While it regularly made me laugh out loud it also changed direction unexpectedly at times and hilarity was replaced by pathos. Kate’s command of language left me in awe: it is not often I find myself spending time on Google expanding what I had previously considered a wide vocabulary.
I don’t generally read books more than once, but I’m going to make an exception with this one. The writing of the characters is one of the reasons, and they feel so authentic I will be asking Kate during our interview whether any of them are based on real people.
Eddy, Eddy is a story that unspools slowly and it is not until part way through that the pieces of the puzzle make sense to the reader. A second reason it warrants a second reading. A third is just to appreciate the superb narrative, vocabulary and literary references that Kate uses with such ease.
Whether you are a devout or disenchanted Catholic, teenager, Christchurch dweller, parent, orphan, friend, uncle, librarian, priest, wealthy ex-nun, a lover, a lover of animals or just a lover of words, you will find something in this wonderful novel to relate to. It will entertain you and add colour to a dull day. I’m thrilled to be able to talk to Kate all about it!
– Founding trustee of Queenstown Writers Festival Chris Fitzpatrick will interview Kate De Goldi on Sunday 13 November 2022. Tickets are selling fast!
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