Pure Spring (review)

In this latest chapter in the life of Doyle's Martin O'Boy (see Boy O'Boy, BCCB 3/04), Martin is now fifteen, and he's found a job, working as a helper on a delivery truck for Pure Spring beverages. He loves the company and the product, and he's instantly smitten with Gerty McDowell, the attractive daughter of one of the company's customers. Unfortunately, he's assigned to driver Randy, who not only discomfits Martin with streams of bigotry and salacious talk, but he also rips off the Pure Spring customers, including Mr. McDowell; honest Martin wants to put a stop to the thieving, but Randy keeps him compliant by threatening to expose Martin's underage status (he claimed to be sixteen) to the company. With his straightforward and uninflected compact sentences, Martin reads like a Hemingway narrator, but one of a tender and hopeful mind and an abiding interest in humankind despite his setbacks. Some of those setbacks are referred to in passing or described in flashback, as with the institutionalization of Martin's mentally disabled brother and the death of Martin's parents in a car crash, events gradually revealed over the course of the story. Doyle's affection for communities, especially mid-century Ottawa, again shines through here, with Martin bolstered by a network of caring friends and deeply saddened at letting down his kindly employer (a historical note testifies to the reality of the company and its civic-minded owners). Such a benevolent literary creation wouldn't leave its hero hanging, and readers will rejoice to see Martin's wrongs righted and Martin himself back on track with Gerty McDowell at his side.