Have you ever come to the aid of a complete stranger? I don’t mean paying for coffee for the car behind you in line at Timmy’s or holding the door open for someone. I mean really supporting an unknown person for an extended period of time, even when there was no way for you to get anything in return.
Alix Ohlin explores this idea in her novel Inside. One character in particular discovers that this is an area in which she is exceedingly competent. This recognition begins when Grace, a devoted therapist in Montreal, one day stumbles across a man who has just failed to hang himself, her instinct to help kicks in immediately and she finds that before long her feelings for this guarded stranger are far from straight forward.
Along with Grace, we meet one of her patients, Annie, who in the hopes of relieving herself of all personal attachments runs away to become an actress only to find that she also has an inexplicable need to help. This time, the individual on the receiving end of altruism is a homeless girl with nowhere to turn. Entwined in all this is Mitch, Grace’s ex-husband who leaves the woman he desperately loves to attend to a struggling native community in the bleak arctic.
This book follows these four characters from Montreal and New York to Nunavut and all the way to Rwanda. With well-written, expressive language, Ohlin explores the more sympathetic side to our nature and explores the moral imperative of making ourselves available to and responsible for those who are dearest to us.
This novel was a Scotiabank Giller prize finalist for good reason. While not my ideal book by any means – too much emotional discussion and knowing glances for my taste – it is captivating and vividly illustrative. It’s kind of like reading four short stories interchangeably and realizing half way through that they are all linked. Interestingly, I felt like I had solved a mystery.
I would recommend this book as uncomplicated and noteworthy with the warning that there are some brief yet graphic descriptions of conditions during the Rwandan conflict that I found difficult to read. Overall, this is a respectable second novel. 3/5
