A Girl Like Sugar

Author: Pohl-Weary, Emily
Genre: Novel
Written in the year 2004 and set in the time period: 1999
Places:
Originally entered by James Schellenberg (Jun-05)
Rating: 9/10

Comments

Sugar's famous boyfriend Marco has just died; they had been dating since high school and before his rock band became the big thing in music. Marco's spiral into self-destructive behaviour caught Sugar up in it too, and as the story begins, she doesn't have a job or much to do all day. A Girl Like Sugar is the story of the main character's struggles to get away from her previous disconnection with life. This is referenced explicitly at several points in the novel, as Sugar wonders how she got this way and how it would ever be possible to regain her liveliness and humanity.

The other thing that stood out about the book for me is the way that Pohl-Weary saturates Sugar's life in pop culture. She's swimming in it! And most of her friends are involved in artsy stuff in some way, so the discussion of music and video and the like are natural as character development.

As far as I can tell, the setting of Toronto is never mentioned by name. But Sugar is obviously living in Toronto, with many references to Toronto stuff, like anti-poverty protests outside Queen's Park (the provincial legislature), various subway stops and neighbourhoods in the city, and so on. While this isn't the seedy underbelly of the city, it's the artsy underground that doesn't necessarily make it into touristy brochures, so that was also an interesting aspect of the book.

Additional Comments

Aug-05 - Fiona Scannell gave the book 8/10 and wrote:

When Sugar's famous boyfriend dies, she realizes that it's time for her to take control of her own life. Realizing this does not make having it happen any easier, and Sugar has to fight ghosts from her past and her own self-doubt to claim a present and future she can be proud of and enjoy. This book shows what early adulthood in Toronto can be like (gloomy one-bedroom basement apartment versus the eclectic mix of living with roommates in a house; walking in dismal weather; having a boyfriend who lives in the city, but with his family) and also includes a brief view of a trip to Vancouver.

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