Three Songs for Courage

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

If S.E. Hinton, Robert Cormier, and Chris Crutcher had collaborated on a
young-adult novel, Three Songs for Courage might have been the result.
It contains Hinton’s Socs/Greasers conflict, Cormier’s
uncompromising reality, and Crutcher’s emotionally sensitive portrayal
of the adolescent male. However, Trottier applies her own unique style
to these ingredients and transports today’s teens to the summer of
1956 and the small town of Erie View on the shore of Lake Erie where
Gordon Westley, 16, and his three buddies “The Lakers,” clash with
Lancer Caldwell, 19, and “The Sultans.”

The 1950s marked the actual emergence of adolescence as a distinct life
stage, and Trottier, in addition to creating a gripping story, has
produced an accurate social history, salted with the names of ’50s
musical performers, actors, and movies and replete with references to
the period’s mores, particularly regular dating and sex. The book’s
title comes from a conversation in which Injun Joely, a World War I vet
who lives and works at the local pool hall, shares his grandfather’s
wisdom with Gordon, explaining that there is song or prayer to be sung
following victory, another after defeat, and a third that each person
must learn alone. Lancer vandalizing Gordon’s car and directing crude
insults at Gordon’s girlfriend had increased the enmity between them.
But Gordon learning that his younger brother’s death involved the
psychopathic Lancer leads to his decision to kill Lancer. Gordon learns
his third song, and Trottier provides a double-barrelled surprise
ending. Highly recommended.