Summer's Idyll

Terry Goldie is an associate professor of English at York University and
co-editor of An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English.

Set in 1944, this is a conventional novel about a young boy and his
milieu, which are described in great detail, from the “good-time
girl” mother to the curmudgeonly grandparents. The boy’s various
friends are caricatures, but caricatures that seem to be accurate
representations of a young boy’s perceptions. Serving as a narrative
thread is the children’s project, a magic show.

There are many Canadian variations on the coming-of-age novel, and
while Gutteridge’s offering is certainly competent it lacks the
philosophical depth of W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind, the
ironic humor of Wayne Johnston’s The Story of Bobby Malley, or the
absolute precision of Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women.