A Shark in the House

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

The “shark” in Holly Kowalski’s house grows quietly for years in
deep waters, until it suddenly surfaces to cause family horror and
tragedy.

This first adult novel by acclaimed young-adult writer Dorris Heffron
traces the lives of two women—childhood friends in 1950s
Toronto—through five decades, in which they travel along very
different paths. Holly, the child of Polish immigrants who work as
servants, at first wants status and an affluent lifestyle. She becomes a
traditional wife and mother, and subsequently a successful dentist. Her
friend Chick, born of a Mohawk mother and a British father, has a
romantic obsession with all things “Indian.” She becomes a student
radical—first at the University of Toronto, and later on scholarship
at Oxford, where she encounters various eccentrics. Over the years, the
women cope with difficult family relationships, births, deaths, and
lovers. Heffron uses the device of a book within a book, as Holly writes
their life stories and Chick responds to, comments on, and censors the
work in progress.

Heffron writes with an eye for detail and a strong sense of place and
geography, particularly of Toronto’s. She has created interesting
characters—seemingly ordinary people caught up in dramatic political
events, culminating in the stand-off at Oka. This combination of the
personal and the political makes for compelling reading and draws the
reader into the story.

Despite the emotional hardships and trauma the women (and the country)
endure, the book is an optimistic one that displays faith in the human
spirit and its resilience.