Life on the Refrigerator Door
Alice Kuipers
(Harper Collins)
Maybe you don’t have a teenager, but you were a teenager so you’ll probably get something out of Alice Kuiper’s intentionally slim novel Life on a Refrigerator Door.
Kuipers, who is originally from London, UK, now lives in Saskatoon.
It’s a story told completely in refrigerator-door notes between a 15-year-old girl, Claire, and her overworked single mom, a physician. The woman and her daughter rarely see each other. In this format, the book can be read in about 45 minutes, give or take.
Showing and not telling is widely held to be the holy grail of fiction writing. By writing a story using so few words, Kuiper enables the reader to fill in the details with personal experiences and imaginings rather than spelling everything out. The note format also allows the reader to draw conclusions about the mother and daughter from small but meaningful acts, such as the teen girl’s growth and increasing independence measured out through her struggle to keep track of her house key.
The clever concept seems strained at times but if you’re willing to suspend disbelief—that so much can be expressed on such little pieces of paper—it is a moving story about love and loss.
Kate Watson
type: book
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
Hi,my name is Chloe and I brought your book yesterday and I have found it quite emotional, as my friends best friends mum I think has breast cancer though I’m not sure. My best friend and her mum told me that a friend had told them so it is not much of a secret. I think that she does have cancer as one day, that girl was crying. I don’t know what to do as she doesn’t know that I know so it is quite hard to see her like this but not to do anything. At the end of the book, I cried as I used to be that girls best friend and I knew her mum and I remember all the good times we had together and that her mum might die. They have told her little brother that her mum is just ill as he is only in 8 or 9 years old. I am 12 and I have learnt a lot from it and you have opened my eyes. Thank you for allowing me to understand the possibility of what cancer can do to you. Thank you for your time and please write some future books which are as great as this one.