Thoughts on Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott

Life’s Different Hues

By Precious de Leon

Everyday, we live across a spectrum of crisis and pratfalls. Finding the laughter and heart in between the tears and heartache reminds us that it’s all worthwhile.

The empty nest. Teenage drama. Mid-life crisis. Coming of age. Throughout the history of storytelling, these genres have been tackled individually and at length. For the most part, the world of fiction allows us to immerse ourselves into these categories one at a time. In reality, our world is layered and complex. It requires us to navigate the emotions and experiences of those around us as much as our own. And, depending on the current stage in our life, we may be looking at one particular issue through such differing perspectives that it can sometimes seem like chaos and drama are inevitable.

As we go through similar rites of passage, it seems silly to think that we can’t learn from the ones who have gone before us. “Hindsight is 20/20” as the saying goes, and this particular phrase was not popularized for being wholly untrue. So why not take advantage? After all, what may seem trivial to one person could feel like an insurmountable problem to another.

Nowadays, we may have our Tumblr, Twitter, iMessaging and Skype and we may be more globally aware than our predecessors, but we have yet to free ourselves of the familiar worries that come with growing up and growing old.

In our youth, we are given an unwritten checklist of things to do to succeed by the standards of society, the foundation of which begins with finishing school, getting a good job and starting a family. For young people, the pressure of starting their adult life the right way is just another ball to juggle, along with finding their individuality. Anyone who’s gone through this process may lovingly look back with rose-tinted glasses, realizing that while it seemed like an arduous journey, all the hardships add up to a life well-lived.

And yet, what happens when you’ve ticked all those boxes and you find yourself facing the consequences of that same checklist? There are no guidelines for creating lifelong loves, coping with death, or even how to deal with the your child becoming an adult.

One wonders if the key to happiness remains elusive to many of us because we have become too consumed with measurable (and therefore comparable) success. Perhaps we are spending our whole lives working toward a means to an end, without really thinking about what is that end.

Well, there’s nothing like a bump in the head to make us see things clearly.

At least that’s the case for Hugh Argylle, the central character on Giller-shortlisted Marina Endicott’s latest novel, Close to Hugh. A head injury caused by a fall from a ladder gives Hugh a fresh perspective on his own trials and tribulations and of those around him. He is the unbiased observer who suddenly decides that he wants to do more than be on the outside looking in.

Hugh’s world feels familiar as it reflects not only the rollercoaster-like dynamics of adulthood but the precarious nature of the young adult universe, as well. As we become the fly on the wall to the life and times of Hugh, his friends and their kids, we will start to wonder whether we ever really reach a peak in life or is it all just a vicious and sometimes mercifully comical cycle.

Among other things, it’s easy to see that life at any age is filled with laughter, heartache, lessons and the constant pursuit of happiness. And hopefully, we don’t all have to get a bump on the noggin to make the most out of it.

Marina Endicott’s Close to Hugh and Guy Vanderhaeghe’s Daddy Lenin will be featured at an upcoming Wordfest event: June 1, 2015, Calgary Public Library, John Dutton Theatre. Tickets $15 / $13 students and seniors.