Young
Adult Fiction
Johnny
Kellock Died Today
Hadley
Dyer
Reviewed by
Janelle
Martin
Rosalie
Norman is facing the summer of 1959 as if she was being sentenced to
boredom. Her best friend is away and she
is stuck socializing with the boy next door, a strange young man called
“the
Gravedigger” by the local children due to his job at the local cemetary. Her carelessness with her drawing pencils
causes Rosalie’s mother to fall and fracture her ankle and as a result,
the
Gravedigger is recruited to help the family out with chores. This forced connection is not one that
Rosalie wants, fearing the backlash from fellow students when returning
to
school in the fall. Johnny Kellock
Died Today is centred around Rosalie’s hunt for the titular
character, her
favourite cousin Johnny, whose disappearance her family is hiding.
Hadley
Dyer’s first novel pulls from memory the long, hot summers of childhood. Rosalie is the youngest child in a family of
grownups, the afterthought baby whose place is never quite certain. Her mother is a true matriarch, ruling the
family with the authority of a field general – while her father, the
nurturer
and comforter, is called only by his surname.
In
this family of shifting tensions and dynamics, Rosalie appears to be at
sea. Dyer has written a character that
lives so much in her mind, and the comics she draws, that she does not
appear
at all connected to her family. This is
exemplified by the fact that she has no knowledge of her father’s first
name,
in fact wondering to herself at that poignant moment “How is it even
halfway
possible I didn’t think about this before?”
As
the Gravedigger becomes David, Rosalie learns more about herself and
her
family’s secrets than she ever thought possible. Her
household make-up changes yet again and
Rosalie is able to finally become one of the adults rather than the
afterthought child.
This
is a delightful story told in Rosalie’s distinctive voice, wonderfully
evoked
by Dyer. This reader’s only complaint is
that the sub-plot of Martha, Rosalie’s sister, is not more
satisfactorily
concluded. The reader is left hanging,
wondering what has driven her solitary wanderings and tension.
This
engaging novel is sure to become the perfect read for a hot summer day,
read on
the porch with a glass of lemonade.