Book Report: Burning Eddy

Burning Eddy
By Scot Gardner

This book was a gift from Caroline. She'd noted that she liked it but not as much as Gravity, and I have to agree. While fast moving and thoughtful, Burning Eddy was juvenile and shallow.

From the back:

In the country, where his fifteenth summer has burned the life from the grass, Daniel Fairbrother is searching. Looking for something that will make tomorrow seem worth the effort. Something that will fix the rot in his family tree. Stop it from falling apart under the weight of a thousand secrets. Dan's clues come from the animals. And the Dutch woman. He works in her garden. Eddy's eighty-six. She has a tattoo, a history, and can make music with her farts. She pays in cash and can read Dan's mind. In a shady corner of Eddy's garden, Dan finds something growing... Hope. But something is burning.

With each chapter named for a different Australian animal, Dan frequently encounters wildlife and learns from their individual traits, though some of these are a stretch. Simultaneously, he befriends Eddy and forms a touching, if stereotypical mother-son relationship. While bordering on over-the-top, Eddy is quite amusing and I found myself grinning at her lively, harmless antics.

"She stood up and broke wind loudly. She took my glass and broke wind in time with her steps to the kitchen. I didn't know where to look. When she returned, she was smiling. 'Did you hear that? I played a little tune with my bum! A windie song. Ha ha!'"

Come on, seriously. Who doesn't laugh at farts??

While Eddy and the animals provide a reprieve and an opportunity to grow, Gardner provides the reader with more somber moments, too. He has shaped Dan into a very 'Gilbert Grape' type big brother to young Toby, and the two contemplate their emotionally distant father in search for answers. This is where the book took on a third dimension, was balanced by light and fluffy with poor family dynamics and emotional pain.

"The house was too quiet. I felt uneasy as I walked to the kitchen door. The car had moved. The P76 wasn't where it had been parked this morning. It was closer to the house. I reached for the handle on the flywire door and it burst open in my face. It was Dad. His jaw was covered in grey stubble. His teeth were bared. He shoved me with both hands and I slammed into the car. Fell to my hands and knees. 'What are you doing going through my stuff?' He kicked me in the guts. If I had been a football I would have flown fifty metres. I'm not a football. The air rushed from me in a wheeze. Something from my guts was forced into my mouth. Bitter like vomit."

I think this book ended a little abruptly. It could have been much longer, much more detailed, much more layered. But it's a young adult book, so I can't fault the author and won't. I still enjoyed it, and appreciated this personal look into one boy's fateful summer.

Three out of five stars for characterization, imagery, and ease.