Sometimes, friends have suggested a book, and other times I stumble across them on my own. At Christmas time, a couple of years ago, I picked up a book for Caiden from the "Bargain Book Bin." If memory serves me, I needed one more thing for his Christmas stocking, and without putting too much thought into it, I grabbed this book: The Rover Adventures by Roddy Doyle (2008). It had three stories in one book - "The Giggler Treatment," "Rover Saves Christmas," and "The Meanwhile Adventures" - and looked like something a little boy would find amusing; the stories centre around a talking dog, afterall. Back then, Caiden still liked it when I read to him, and the two of us laughed until we cried when we read these stories. Well, I mostly laughed because I so enjoyed his laughing, but for whatever reasons, we  both really enjoyed these stories. And recently, Caiden told me that Roddy Doyle is his favourite author.
     Who is Roddy Doyle anyway? Have you heard of him?  Because he's not from around here. Sometimes it is easy to caught up in North American writers - there are so many great story-tellers here, but also because we can be narrow-minded, too. There is more to British writing than the greats that we study in school - Milton, Spenser, Chaucer (my favourite) and Shakespeare. Oh, and don't forget that lady ... JK Rowling, I think is her name. Roddy Doyle is an Irish writer, living and working from Dublin. He worked for several years as a teacher (of English and Geography), but began writing full time in 1993. Doyle has written nine novels, a non-fiction book about his parents, several short stories, and of course, he has written children's books as well. Six of them to be exact.
     One day, while studying at the (quiet) library on campus, I took note of the books on the shelf nearest me. Roddy Doyle was there. At that time, I did not realize that Doyle wrote adult fiction, as well and I could not wait to get home to tell Caiden.
     I didn't have time to read Doyle's fiction then, but I do now. I just read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996).
     I'll be honest: there were times that I was so emotionally involved with Paula Spencer, the protagonist of the story, that I wondered why I was putting myself through her agony. It is a sad story; one of poverty, alcoholism, spousal abuse, murder, guilt, and trying to find a way to cope with life. It is also a story of love, because Paula Spencer loves her husband, Charlo; and she gives us (the reader) a glimpse into the psychology of a battered wife. I have studied about and worked with battered women ... their situations are cluttered with psychology and hopelessness and tragedy. Statistics Canada reports that almost 62000 women enter women's shelters for refuge from a violent partner every year; only one in four of them will report the assault to the police. On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
     What? In Canada? I know, it's shocking isn't it?
     The Woman Who Walked Into Doors gave me something new to think about. By that I mean, it better helped me understand the battered woman's reasoning (to stay) and her coping mechanisms, which are not always healthy, by the way. It is not always about money - Paula Spencer really truly loved her husband and she really thought that she deserved to be beated into unconsciousness. (Ladies, please know that you never deserve to beaten. EVER. Even if you are sassy, or refuse to make your husband's tea, or you don't have supper ready when he gets home from work. Not ever.)
     The weird thing is that this story was written by a man; and the weirder thing is that you would never know.
     This past year, I studied composition ... and it is where my heart lies. By considering composition, it gives new meaning to the story, it allows you to understand it in a more meaningful way. Doyle has constructed this story brilliantly. The story is not told chronologically, but anachronically. Interestingly, if you consider the chapter at the centre of the book, it reveals what is central to the story. It tells where Paula Spencer is now, where she is at in her life, where her children are, how she is coping. It talks about today. The end of the book details what happened to effect the changes that were necessary for survival. But the thing is, neither the chapter at the centre of the book, nor the final chapter give the reader that happy ending we all crave. Maybe that's because it is difficult for a battered woman to find the happy ending that she wants, too: if she stays, it means being beaten into unconsciousness; if she leaves, it means feeling lonely and pining for the man she fell in love with. 
     I have discovered that there is a second book about Paula, entitled Paula Spencer (2007). It apparently takes place ten years after the end of the first book. I'm still recuperating from this emotional upheaval ... maybe I'll read the end to Paula's tale when I'm on Christmas break.
If you want to read more about Violence Against Women in Canada, start here.