Delightful tale lovingly conjures up 1950s Toronto
The Student weaves together two different eras in the city as it tells the story of a young woman’s growing feminist consciousness
For those of us who adore this city — and feel a deep sense of nostalgia for its streets, its cultural landmarks, its storied past, its residents — there is no better book than one that features Toronto as a living, breathing character. Margaret Atwood’s 1969 debut novel
The Edible Woman, say. Or, more recently, Michael Redhill’s 2017 Giller-winner
Bellevue Square. Or the much-lauded Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez, out that same year. Local author Cary Fagan’s latest, The
Student, sits squarely in this tradition, and for Torontophiles, it will prove a delight from start to finish, weaving together two different eras of T.O. history in one brief, brilliant little book.
The novel opens in 1957 in Queen’s Park, as the brainy Miriam Moscowitz embarks on her final year of university. At school, females are not allowed into Hart House (unless accompanied by a man for tea at the Arbor Room), and are expected to drop out whenever they get married. But Miriam is determined to defy the odds and be taken seriously. And win a spot in grad school.
Her stultifying home life, meanwhile, consists of obligatory family dinners and visits to the cottage, and the constant placating of her fretful mother and dull boyfriend. All of which soon clashes with the stimulation she finds in books, on campus and, ultimately, in the arms of a brooding American boy.
Against a backdrop of the civil rights movement down south, and a growing feminist consciousness, Miriam begins to see the affair as a door that leads to another life — one she might just be willing to sacrifice all for.
Fast forward to 2005, and Miriam is the professor she’d dreamed of becoming, preparing for the wedding ceremony of her gay son. The family gathering stirs up ghosts, and, as she marches through the day on autopilot, she’s forced to confront the past that she long ago left behind.
This is a novel to savour on the subway, to devour on a lazy Sunday in Trinity Bellwoods, to read over coffee in a packed Kensington Market café. A novel that celebrates the city.
Beautifully crafted and bursting with love, The Student is a marvellous addition to the Toronto canon. Tara Henley is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of the forthcoming book Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life.