Vivian Untangled

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian living in Harvard,
Massachusetts.

Vivian has her fair share of troubles. She is not pretty or popular and
doesn’t have a best friend. She is embarrassed by her hand-me-down
clothes, her father’s rusted Studebaker, and their small, messy,
third-floor walk-up flat. At school she is often bored and often in
trouble. She has to make due with a leftover notebook from Grade 4 for a
diary because her mother thinks the fancy ones are a waste of money.
When Vivian sees a beautiful new diary in the gift shop, she is
determined to find a way to get it. She steals a pen from her
grandfather’s house, thinking that he won’t even miss it, and sells
it to buy the diary. Her troubles escalate as she creates elaborate
schemes to cover up what she has done. In the end, she must confess her
lies and come up with a plan to make restitution for her actions.

Vivian’s story is set in Montreal in 1955 and makes many allusions
to the culture of that time and place: the hockey players, singers, and
music that were popular, and the slang expressions that were common,
such as “nifty,” “jalopy,” and “none of your beeswax.” The
plot is a little slow to get started, but Vivian’s dramatic way of
perceiving the world makes the story more engaging. However, the
regional nature of the setting and the details of that time period may
have limited appeal. Recommended with reservations.