Review of Over our Heads by Andrea Thompson

Over our Heads

Emma and Rachel are half-sisters, but don’t know that until they meet at the ages of 10 and 11. Their approach to the world couldn’t be more different. Emma is an “old soul” – connected deeply to creation, outwardly fragile but with a rich, stabilizing inner life. Rachel is brittle, full of fear, buttressing herself against reality through routine and predictability. It isn’t until their Grandmother dies – the one person who held their family together through all sorts of tenuous times, that Emma and Rachel fully confront their own world view, each other and themselves.

Chapters illuminating Emma and Rachel’s early childhood years, interspersed with the present-tense story, help illustrate the author’s assertion that life has some design and purpose that we don’t see when we are young. Over Our Heads has a lot to say about life and our approach to it, the significance we attach to events and objects we collect along our journey, and our consequent understanding and experience of death. The sisters embody almost diametrically opposing viewpoints, provoking the reader to examine their own beliefs.

The cast of supporting characters in the novel are just as interesting as Emma and Rachel: Lester – the broken and mostly lovable artist, Wanda – the alcoholic mother, Just Jack and Mama Shirley – the well-intentioned but inept foster parents, Nina the adolescent bully who becomes a lawyer, and Grandma – solid and practical, at the hub of a troubled family. All these people come to life in the middle-class Canadian landscape – primarily in Toronto, in a neighborhood you can view on Google maps.

In the story of Emma & Rachel’s lives the themes of race/ethnicity, belonging, spiritual beliefs, work ethic and family are nicely interwoven. The book title, then, is apt on a couple levels – first, understanding the people around us and navigating our life’s roadway can be difficult. And second, understanding our place in the universe – our purpose – is also over our heads”. Our lives are a grand journey, nonetheless. Andrea Thompson reveals the microcosm of the characters’ lives as representative of universal truths in all our lives.

Reviewed by Angela Wiseman

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