A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP
Acclaimed writer’s first novel
Demi-Gods Eliza Robertson Hamish Hamilton
Rising Canadian literary star Eliza Robertson wants to be clear about one thing.
Her taut new novel, Demi- Gods, is not intended as an antidote to Fifty Shades of Grey.
In fact, Robertson hasn’t even read E.L. James’s notorious celebration of sado-masochism, and she hasn’t seen the movie.
“And I don’t want to read it,” Robertson adds firmly, saying she’s not interested in fiction that “condones” and “normalizes” forms of sexual aggression.
Nevertheless, she agrees that Demi- Gods, published in Canada by Hamish Hamilton, is a cautionary tale about a young woman caught up in a devastating relationship dating back to childhood. In brief, the novel chronicles a coming-of-age journey that goes terribly wrong.
And the reason it goes wrong is a cunning, manipulative, sexually warped psychopath named Patrick.
“I’m fascinated by that type of person,” Robertson says. “I’ve met persons like Patrick, but have never been in a relationship where I’m close to one of them. But I’ve been chilled when I look into their behaviour. There are more of these people around than you think.”
Patrick makes a frightening entry into the life of nine-year-old Willa in 1950. That’s when Willa, her mother and her sister Joan — she’s the beautiful sibling — are living on Salt Spring Island off the B.C. coast. It’s an idyllic setting, but for Willa it’s ruptured by the arrival of her mother’s new boyfriend and his two sons.
The younger son is Patrick, who is already showing an innate gift for domination games and sexual power plays. When he lures her into a dilapidated rowboat, the grotesque humiliations she suffers mark the beginning of an increasingly destructive relationship that pursues her into adulthood.
Robertson’s 2014 short-story collection, Wallflowers, was hailed by major critics on both sides of the Atlantic and was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice. But Robertson, who had previously won a Man Booker scholarship and the Commonwealth short story prize, was apprehensive when she decided to tackle a novel.
“It was very tough,” she says now. “It was not a labour of love. But I did want to challenge myself and push myself.”
The result was Demi- Gods and its origins are unique, given that it began life as a creative-writing thesis at the University of East Anglia. By that time restlessness had driven Robertson away from British Columbia to one of the best writing programs in Britain.
She had earlier taken an undergraduate degree at the University of Victoria with the intention of becoming a lawyer. “But some part of me was dissatisfied with what I was doing, and I took a writing class to see how that would go. I fell completely in love with writing fiction . ... I got sucked into that world.”
The prestigious University of East Anglia beckoned, and Robertson ended up making a new home for herself in England and securing an MA and PhD in the process.
She’s chatting with Postmedia during a visit to Toronto. She’s also finally returning to Canada — to a new home in Montreal. But she doesn’t know how long she’ll be there. “I’m quite nomadic.”
Today, she’s brooding over the fact that comedian Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial recently ended with a hung jury.
That prompts her to emphasize that Demi-Gods is more than just a period novel.
“Maybe my major goal was to show that the issues it raises are still as important as they were in the 1950s,” she says reflectively.
In writing the novel, Robertson hoped she was “mapping Willa’s psychosexual development as a young girl” with her early experiences of Patrick playing a perverse role. But her broader aim was “to examine how Willa came to develop in all her relationships — including not being able to commit to another person.”
As the years pass, the story moves to Southern California, but Patrick is a recurring and pervasive presence. The novel consists of a series of snapshots in Willa’s life, which reach a harrowing moment of truth in 1961 and then conclude with a poignant coda set in 2001.
The novel also deals with the processes of survival against formidable odds. Willa’s family is markedly dysfunctional, headed by a mother who drinks too much. And Willa has always been considered the Plain Jane in the household.
“Joan is the golden girl with the blond hair and Willa is the black sheep, as it were,” Robertson says. And then Patrick appears on the scene and displays a perverse interest in her. “And she likes how it feels at the beginning. For the first time she is feeling the sunlight on her.”
Even though Demi- Gods began as a thesis and earned the praise of her supervisors, Robertson still found it daunting. She knew Willa would be the central character. She was clear about the settings she wanted — Salt Spring Island and Southern California.
“But I didn’t find its shape until probably the third draft. Portraying a toxic relationship between a man and a woman is complicated.”
I’m fascinated by that type of person . ... I’ve been chilled when I look into their behaviour.