Last Sam's Cage

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Fifteen-year-old Eddie Slater lives with his mother and an abusive
stepfather, who frequently beats Eddie and is now threatening to kill
him. Eddie has already had trouble with the law and is labelled a young
offender. Now, terrified of Steve, he leaves home with a small duffle
bag and heads for the Calgary Zoo.

Eddie’s diary is his only confidant and friend. At the zoo, he can
sympathize with the animals both as friends and as the “audience”
for his diary. (The diary’s text is set in a different typeface, a
clever device that works well as a vehicle for conveying the young
hero’s perils and his feelings.) Eddie has already been to the zoo
twice before, once with his class and once with Steve on the day his
stepfather nearly choked him to death.

Now, as a runaway, Eddie finds the zoo’s female tiger to be a
sympathetic audience. He tells her of the small town where he lived as a
child and of the happy camping trips he took with his father. Enter a
tramp who lives in the park and has been listening to Eddie talking to
the caged tiger. Together they go to Chinatown and have a dramatic
encounter with the school bully. When Eddie finally returns home, he
finds only his mother there. Her abusive husband has left.

Last Sam’s Cage is a rough, harsh tale for teens, a moral one that
works toward a happy ending and is lightened by black humour.
Recommended.