Tell Paperback – February 3, 2015

Perfect for our English course.

Loved it, but not as much as Deafening. Liked learning more about Tress, Mags and Am.

Itani's books are terrific.

Frances Itani's recent novel, TELL, takes the reader back to the end of World War I and the last months of 1919. A young soldier, wounded and just released from medical treatment in England, comes home to his young wife and to the house he had never before seen from the inside. How to return to a life of innocence and peace after what he has experienced? Frances Itani delved into a theme that has not lost its power and relevance since then. Many soldiers and their loved ones have suffered from what we now refer to as "post-traumatic stress disorder".The story is set in the small town of Desoronto, Ontario, that had been at the centre at her award-winning 2003 novel, DEAFENING. Since then, Itani has gained recognition and praise for her ability to capture with great sensitivity an individual's psychological struggles to overcome physical and emotional scars and trauma. Readers of the earlier novel will no doubt be familiar with both the place and quite a few of the protagonists. When asked during an interview about her motivations for the new book, Ms Itani explained that she was "… not entirely finished with minor characters from my earlier novel, Deafening, who had stories of their own to tell". While Tell is a self-contained novel that does not require the background of the earlier one, I personally found that being aware of the other members of the close knit community and their backstories would most likely enrich the reading experience and understanding of the central characters in Tell.The storyline evolves primarily around two couples, Kenan and Tress and her aunt and uncle, Maggie and Am. Kenan, the young soldier, is deeply wounded in body and soul: one side of his face his scarred; he has lost the use of one eye and one arm. He has withdrawn from family and friends and for a time even refuses to leave the house. Tress has anxiously awaited her husband's return and now needs all her patience to relate to Kenan and to support him as best she can. Trying to understand Kenan's silence on the one hand and attempting to slowly and gently rebuild their intimate relationship places a heavy burden on the young woman. She loves her husband deeply and had hoped that they could restart their lives and think of a family. She thought she knew Kenan well. But, never having been much of a talker, he holds his thoughts and emotions deeply buried in his mind. Vivid memories of scenes in the trenches disrupt his sleep. How can anybody understand what he continues to go through? It seems his only contact with the outside world that he enjoys is the exchange of letters with one of his friends from the front.The character of Kenan is finely drawn and his slow recovery feels totally authentic. In time, Kenan quietly leaves the house at night, unbeknownst to Tress, to wander through the woods away from the town. He needs the solitude in nature. Itani's account of these nightly wanderings is beautifully rendered. You can literally take a deep sigh of relief with Kenan. "His right hand made a sign, a word. A finger to his lips and back to his chest. Tell, it seems to be saying, but the word was directed at himself. It was his private communication: Tell."Tress comes across as a competent and kind person, but to me she seems to stay too much in the background, as a lesser developed character. She needs help and seeks advice and solace in the company of her aunt Maggie, who she has been close to since her childhood. Maggie, however, has her own, long buried, scars that she cannot share and that has led to strains in her own marriage to Am. Am does suffer from the silence in the home and feels drawn to Kenan. Maybe the two men can help each other. Itani captures the emotional struggles that Kenan and – for different reasons – Am go through with great empathy and sensitivity. The silence between them slowly melts as Kenan increasingly regains his confidence in skating on the near-by rink, at night. The enjoyment of the sport they both love relaxes them and helps them to open up to each other and the reader will finally learn more about some of the long held secrets.Desoronto's close knit community is shaken out of their passive acceptance of day-to-day reality by two outsiders: the lively and energetic Zel, who opens a boarding house in the woods nearby, and the new choirmaster Lukas, a refugee from Europe who may or may not stay in Desoronto. Zel is like balm for Maggie's soul. The two become close friends. Under Lukas' guidance Maggie rediscovers her love for music and her talent for singing. And, as can be guessed, music has additional healing powers that bring Maggie to a new realization of herself and her ambitions for her life. Suffice to add that like all relationships that Itani develops in the novel the new friendship between Maggie and the two newcomers are handled with kindness and subtlety. But their impacts not only on Maggie are long lasting.Interestingly, Frances Itani opens her novel with a short chapter that describes a scene, set one year later than the rest of the novel. It is intriguing as the reader wonders about the meaning, the individuals involved, etc. I am not sure that this was the most successful way of tackling another major theme that interests the author in her novel, that of abandonment and adoption of an infant. The novel will not appeal to every reader. Itani's writing is detailed and descriptive, at times possibly a bit on the slow side. The ending felt a bit rushed and unsatisfactory as the beginning and the end were tied together rather superficially. [Friederike Knabe]

In its own quiet way, Tell, by Frances Itani, is one of the most deeply satisfying books I've read in a long time. The author's ability to describe any situation life throws at us, in beautiful, understated language, is downright amazing.The novel is a kind of sequel to Deafening, taking place in the same small town in Canada just after the First World War, yet it concentrates on several characters who were not the main ones in the first book.Two couples are at the center—Am and Maggie and Kenan and Tress. Their lives, as most lives, are seemingly simple, yet complex. How they live, work, and adjust to the ravages of the war (Kenan is quite disfigured as a result) makes up the bulk of the story.Place is a character in the book. Itani's descriptions of winter are rendered in such lyrical prose that I found myself almost literally feeling the cold, the quiet, the snow. The theme of loss is pervasive throughout the book: losses from the war, from dreams deferred and almost forgotten, from loved ones moving far away.All of this is portrayed so deftly that, although I'm far removed from small-town Canada in 1919, I was there. I know and like these people.The only negative comment refers to the ending. The utter sadness of it, although somewhat predictable, struck an unsettling note in an otherwise truly lovely work.by Helene Benardofor Story Circle Book Reviewsreviewing books by, for, and about women

This is a novel of strong characters, a remarkably rich and complex plot and lyrical and spare prose. The story is set in a small Ontario town on the shores of Lake Ontario near the end of 1919. The book centers around young Kenan who has recently returned from hospital in Europe where he was sent to recover from catastrophic wounds he received in the Great War. Kenan's adjustment to his life after the horrors he experienced at the front and while trying to come to grips with his new reality is so very typical of what soldiers very often experience after the terrible things they've endured and witnessed in war. He is damaged and disfigured from the wounds he received, and he realizes with terrible clarity that life will never be the same for him. Kenan tries to adjust to life back in his hometown with his new wife whom he barely had time to know before he went off to war. With the help of Tress, his wife, and his uncle and aunt Am and Maggie who have lost their own way because of their own secrets, he manages to slowly reestablish himself in his small community. We see how long buried secrets and the consequences of keeping these secrets from the light of day, unacknowledged and unresolved, can destroy our lives. Ms. Itani's lyrical prose and total understanding of human nature is nothing short of remarkable. Her prose is spare and devastatingly descriptive. The story unfolds through Kenan's memories of the war as a constant backdrop. This is another worthy contender as a shortlisted novel for the Giller Prize.

I am disappointed in this book because it reads exactly in the way I have come to expect from so many award winners: the details are precise, the action remains closed in a circle of tight characters whose lives, like those in The Shipping News, remain eccentric but small. The surprise ending did bring some energy to what I found to be a sleepy book.

France’s Itani is a superb writer ! Not enough readers are aware of her arresting novels!

Well written. How wounded we are by man,s inhumanity to man,all of us in varying degrees. I felt,as I read it,that I was right there as a bystander.

What happened to the friend from PEI that was supposed to be coming to visit? This book made me quit my book club. The author just ran out of steam, had enough for a longish story, but not for a book

The historic portrayal of small town Ontario was very familiar, as this was my world. The story became very slow for quite a stretch and then the conclusion rushed. I would have preferred more balance.