Etta and Otto and Russell and James (Hooper)
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Etta and Otto and Russell and James
Emma Hooper, 2015
Simon & Schuster
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476755670
Summary
A gorgeous literary debut about unlikely heroes, lifelong promises, and last great adventures.
The two men had formed a deep bond as boys after an accident on a tractor left Russell partially crippled. Thereafter they alternated days at the schoolhouse, which was run by a young teacher, Etta Gloria Kinnick. Then World War II came, when Otto and every other young man in town (except Russell, because of his disability) was called to serve.
As time passed, Etta read of Otto’s experiences in the war during a tender correspondence between them, which blossomed into romance when the young man returned on leave. Russell supported Etta emotionally when she suffered a devastating loss, but Etta chose Otto, not Russell, as her husband. Thereafter the three shared a warm friendship into their latter years.
Now eighty-three-year-old Etta makes her way on foot toward Halifax in the east, taking on as a companion a somewhat tame coyote, whom she names James; her friend Russell, hoping to dissuade her from her mission, tracks her down, but she refuses to turn back and goes on undeterred.
Otto, who knows in his heart that Etta must do as her own heart dictates, diverts his unease and sadness by taking up the craft of papier-mâché, at which he excels; and the two men await the outcome of Etta’s quest. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Raised in Alberta, Canada, Emma Hooper brought her love of music and literature to the UK, where she received a doctorate in Musico-Literary studies at the University of East-Anglia and currently lectures at Bath Spa University. A musician, Emma performs as the solo artist Waitress for the Bees and plays with a number of bands. She lives in Bath, UK, but goes home to Canada to cross-country ski whenever she can. (From the pubisher.)
Book Reviews
Hooper…has more or less nailed the Amélie charm with this sweet, disarming story of lasting love…Hooper shows great restraint in balancing the quirky with the universal, blurring the lines between them…[Her] steady hand creates the perfect setup for the unexpected.
Regina Marler - New York Times Book Review
Hooper places us in a world that doesn’t entirely overlap with our own, and the novel is perhaps best read as an extended fairytale—in the wild, Etta meets James, a coyote who talks and sings cowboy songs when no one else is around. But the story is grounded firmly enough in the real world to maintain suspense as we wonder what will become of Etta—the scenes of her struggles with near-starvation in the wilderness are harrowing.
Guardian (UK)
Quirky, offbeat... Modern life is full of people spouting rubbish about spurious emotional and spiritual "journeys." Etta's trek as she comes to the end of her life and reckons with the past, has, in contrast, a real and worthwhile dignity to it.
Financial Times
[Hooper’s] crisp, unadorned prose beautifully captures her characters' sentiments, and conveys with compassion but also a degree of distance their experiences of love and pain, longing and loss… this novel pulsates with an energy that can best be described as raw but also highly restrained.
Chicago Tribune
Heartfelt… In simple, graceful prose, Hooper has woven a tale of deep longing, for reinvention and self-discovery, as well as for the past and for love and for the boundless unknown.
San Francisco Chronicle
Hooper has conjured a character who is a gift… As the lines blur between Etta’s and Otto’s memories, and even between their physical bodies, readers emerge with a deeper appreciation for life and for its suffering against its backdrop of majesty.
Dallas Morning News
A bit like a fairy tale, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is whimsical, even magical. A bit like the Canadian prairie, it is spare, yet beautiful.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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…. It’s filled with magical realism, whimsy and the idea that you’re never too old to take risks.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
In this haunting debut, set in a starkly beautiful landscape, Hooper delineates the stories of Etta and the men she loved (Otto and Russell) as they intertwine through youth and wartime and into old age. It’s a lovely book you’ll want to linger over.
People
(Starred review.) Hooper’s arresting debut novel, with its spare, evocative prose, seamlessly interweaves accounts of the present-day lives of its eponymous main characters with the stories of their pasts and how they first connected with each other.... Hooper...reveals the extraordinary lengths to which people will go in the name of love.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Hooper’s spare, evocative prose dips in and out of reality and travels between past and present creating what Etta tells Otto is "just a long loop." This is a quietly powerful story whose dreamlike quality lingers long after the last page is turned.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Drawing on wisdom and whimsy of astonishing grace and maturity, Hooper has written an irresistibly enchanting debut novel that explores mysteries of love old and new, the loyalty of animals and dependency of humans, the horrors of war and perils of loneliness, and the tenacity of time and fragility of memory.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied…To a Cormac McCarthy–like narrative—sans quotation marks, featuring crisp, concise conversations—Hooper adds magical realism…. The book ends with sheer poetry…A masterful near homage to Pilgrim’s Progress: souls redeemed through struggle.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. One day during their childhood years, Alma impressed her little sister Etta with a display of whitened fish bones, which Etta found strikingly beautiful: "What language do fish speak?" she asked. "Probably French," said Alma. "Like Grandma." Does the scene contain a clue to Etta’s late-life journey?
2. During the journey, James the coyote begins to speak to Etta in human language; a little boy who has seen Etta says she was "maybe a witch or maybe a lady-Santa-Claus. She was magical." We are in a world of magic realism. What other subtle magic do you see in the novel? What role do you think this stylistic choice plays in the narrative?
3. Otto and Russell first learn about the war abroad through radio interviews, in which they hear a story about imprisoned children and babies who float through the prison window because they are so light from malnourishment. Discuss the meaning of this story. Where else in the novel do you come across storytelling or oral history?
4. Etta and Otto have long corresponded by letter, beginning with Otto’s letter from the European front and continuing much later while Etta is hiking to the ocean. In what ways do letters at the beginning and the end of their relationship mirror one another? Why do you think Emma Hooper chose the epistolary form to convey many of the details in her novel?
5. When Russell finds Etta and tries to convince her to come home, she responds: "You’re not actually here to fetch me.... You’re here...because it’s your turn, finally. It’s sad that you felt you needed my permission for that, but, oh well. Go, Russell, go do whatever, wherever. Go do it alone, and now, because you want to and you’re allowed to and you can." What has Etta learned on her trek that prompts her to encourage Russell to travel? What meaning do you think Russell is seeking when he rides north in search of caribou?
6. In the course of Etta’s travels, she becomes a celebrity—as does Otto, at home, though both would rather have pursued their endeavors privately. What qualities do Etta’s pilgrimage to the sea and Otto’s papier-mâché projects share? What qualities distinguish them? What might these august achievements say about the nature of celebrity?
7. Russell does not return to his farm before the end of the novel, but in the latter part of the novel he sends a letter to Otto estimating that he "should be home" before autumn; then, still later, he is shown soliciting directions to the airport. How might his travels in the Northwest Territories have changed him?
8. In one of his letters, Otto admits to Etta that he has "this idea that all these boys who have come to fill the places of the ones we’ve lost will fill their places exactly and be shot through or stabbed in the dark or blown up just like the last ones, exactly like them, one to one." His vision betrays disillusionment in the face of unremitting death on the battlefield. Do you think this is the author’s statement about the nature of war? How have wars affected you or those close to you?
9. As Etta’s journey gains national media attention, a journalist named Bryony decides unexpectedly to travel alongside her. Do you think Bryony’s account of her brother’s troubled life helps to explain that decision? Compare the loss of Bryony’s brother to Etta’s loss of her sister Alma.
10. At home, when husband and wife slept in the same bed, Etta tried to "sleep without any part of her touching any part of [Otto]," so that she would no longer be pulled into his dream. What was the dream? And while she lies in a hospital bed late in her journey, for a while her husband’s identity replaces her own. How do you interpret this phenomenon?
11. In the final pages, Etta enters the ocean at last. At home in his bed, Otto breathes "easy and deep six times in a slow ritardando," and then he is "underwater." How do you interpret the lovers’ meeting underwater, and their tender words as they sit there together? Why dos the author return to the past in the final lines of the novel?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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