The world through 12-year-old Annie’s eyes is a place of wonder and contradictions. Annie Shea is the star of a debut novel, A Theory of Expanded Love (Lightmessages Publishing), from Roberts Creek author Caitlin Hicks.
Annie is a middle child in a family of 13. Yes, that’s right, 13 children and number 14 on the way, and yes, the novel is loosely based on Hicks’ own family experience. Annie thinks she might want to become a nun — or maybe not. She is growing up in California in 1963 at an exciting time: their family friend Cardinal Stefanucci is in the running for Pope and the family makes sure that everyone at their church knows they are friends with such a pious fellow, thus assuring a ticket to heaven and greater status on earth. Annie is happy to exaggerate the extent of the cardinal’s friendship when talking with her school friends, so much so that she is quickly caught up in a tangle of lies and half-truths.
Annie’s adventures with her sister, Madcap, are among the funniest and the most poignant. When Madcap flirts with a young, handsome surfer, Annie learns by watching, and she realizes that it is possible to challenge the authority of her rigorous parents.
This story will resonate with Catholics and children of large families, although the voice of young Annie is so loud throughout the book that the character and her foibles will appeal to every reader. The book is a coming of age story, but more than that, it explores in an authentic, naïve way the prejudices of the time. Unwed mothers must be hidden away in a home lest they bring shame to the family. But the Virgin Mary was an unwed mother, points out Clara, one of Annie’s sisters, leaving Annie to ponder this extraordinary thought.
Adults kept secrets from their kids about their affairs, their miscarriages, stuff they thought children should not know. And no one explained the facts of life to a girl growing into her body. Since the action takes place around the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, the reader knows that many of these attitudes are about to change in America.
In a workshop at the Gibsons Library May 20, Hicks described her creative process and gave thanks to her writing group for being so helpful and encouraging.
Hicks will launch A Theory of Expanded Love on Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Centre in Sechelt. At the launch, Hicks will read from and answer questions about her novel, as well as perform a comedic monologue, an excerpt from a play that she wrote years ago, titled Six Palm Trees, co-written with artist and husband Gordon Halloran. It offers another glimpse of the big Shea family at a reunion to celebrate the sale of their family home, after everyone has grown up and the family’s matriarch has died. When Hicks first performed this play, it drew outrage from her family, particularly from her father, who disowned her. This time there will be no outrage — instead the audience will be delighted to hear about Annie’s escapades in this gem of a book. See www.caitlinhicks.com for more.
