The Buzz...About Books

Farzana Doctor’s Six Metres of Pavement is one of this year's Toronto Book Award nominees.

I probably shouldn’t have
enjoyed Six Metres of Pavement. After
all, the premise is heart-breaking in that uncomfortable sort of way: after
forgetting his infant daughter in a Toronto parking garage one summer day,
Ismail Boxwala  is still broken nearly
two decades later. His life has unravelled in ways we can imagine. He is a
mostly functioning alcoholic, with an ex-wife that, understandably, never quite
managed to make the marriage work after their daughter’s death.

What’s intriguing, of
course, about a story that is built on such a sad set of conditions, is just
how the characters find their way out. What’s even more intriguing is that the
promise of redemption appears in mysterious ways – and often, the healing we
seek out is, at best, complicated and incomplete.

Ismail is once advised
that the only way to survive misfortune is to stay in motion. And, indeed, the
characters in Six Metres, driven by unfortunate circumstances, are perpetually
in motion. Ismail moves through his life in a perfunctory state. His young
writing class peer, Fatima, bounces from one friend’s couch to another, as a
result of being kicked out of her paren'ts’ home for her non-traditional
lifestyle. Ismail’s newly widowed neighbour, the charming and sensitive Celia,
deals with her agonias while huddled
away in her daughter’s home.

Farzana Doctor writes
with a delicate touch. Her characters, all strongly written, are realistically
flawed with authentic voices that make their relationships both believable and
relatable. Even Ismail – someone I was initially wary of – grew into a
character I found myself understanding and even rooting for. While this is a
balanced story (Fatima and Celia’s narratives are offered
thoughtfully), Ismail is truly the driving force here, even if he would be
hesitant to be any sort of hero of any story.

It’s impossible to
read Six Metres and be left untouched. Paren'ts of young children will be left
biting their lip because they have been in a situation where they just almost forget. College students
will understand the complicated love and boundaries of their families. Older
readers may recognize Celia’s unrelenting independent spirit in themselves. 

And everyone in
between? They’ll read about a set of perfectly imperfect human beings trying to
make sense of circumstances both self-inflicted and uncontrolled. And, with
Doctor’s last pages, they’ll be reminded that we are all in the process of
healing from something or another. 

The winner of this year’s Toronto Book Awards will be announced on Thursday, October 11.