Charity

Fraser (The Voice Gallery) rushes through topics ranging from body image issues and May/December romances to opiate addiction and quarter-life crises in a spirited if undeveloped story set in present-day Vancouver. Narrator Denise Catalpa turns the focus mainly to her 23-year-old stepdaughter, Greta Fitzgerald, an aspiring doctor. Greta’s lover is Rudy Skupa, 88, a family friend and former babysitter to both women. Denise is concerned Greta will be left caring for Rudy as he becomes infirm, and makes incessant comments about Greta’s weight. Greta drops out of med school, and she and Rudy travel to Sierra Leone to work for Doctors Without Borders, where Rudy dies from “one malady or another.” When Greta comes home, she’s lost a remarkable amount of weight and, having sampled Rudy’s morphine, is addicted to opiates. Greta’s birth mother, Judy, described by Denise as one step below a “callous cougar,” shows up to help, and the two mothers forge a detente in order to help Greta. Fraser injects vague, unsettling reminiscences from Denise about Rudy’s presence in her childhood, but they don’t cohere with the Greta narrative. Too many questions linger in this brief, unsatisfying book. (Jan.)