In Brian Doyle's first book, teenager Megan dreads making a road trip all the way across the country with her parents and younger brother Ryan. Her father's tendency to joke doesn't help. She'd rather stay home and be president of the Down with Boys Club any day. But she has no choice. She has to endure endless driving, being trapped in a car with her younger brother, and the great view of the transport trucks that box them in on all sides. But as the days go by Megan begins to change her mind. There are constant reports on the radio about forest fires across huge parts of the country. There is the old lady who owns a motel and is so glad to have the family stay there because the recent death of her husband has left her lonely and sad. There are the cute boys at a lakeside stop. All these experiences jumble together in her head. Love and death, family and friends, what matters and what doesn't, fill her mind as the vast country unrolls before the windows. Will a final confrontation with her father drive Megan over the edge?
"If they seem big to you from here, they won't seem as big when you get there. Everything is different than it looks to be. The lakes that seem big and deep are small and shallow. The lakes that seem small and shallow are big and deep. The land that looks kind is cruel. The sky that looks fierce is friendly."
This book has only just over 100 pages but it has managed to make me fall asleep more times than any of the 600 page novels I read recently, and this even although the premise of the book looks interesting:
13-year-old Megan's family is spending the summer holidays on a road trip with her family. Packed up in the car the family drives from Ottawa all across Canada to Vancouver. The only problem - Megan does not want to be there. Very early on she falls out with her dad, and most of the book is about her being a (stereo-)typical teenager.
Doyle succeeds in capturing that mood of Megan's not wanting to go on the trip, and her boredom, and her embarrassment when her father tries too hard to be cool. Where the book falls flat is in the plot. Not much happens until the last quarter of the book, and even then, the narration is kept so short that many of the interesting points about this coming of age story are lost or aren't explored at all.
