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The Big Shuffle: A Novel ReviewOften, in narratives which focus on the lives of young women in their teens or early twenties, there is an inclination among novelists and short story writers to make the female adolescent journey into life either so uncomplicated and therefore inconsequential that the conspicuous absence of a dark cloud causes us to pause in disbelief, or so downright menancing--as in the brilliant but pessimistic short studies about teen aged girls written by Joyce Carol Oates--that the journey is so riddled with darkness and dispair that the central character is often blinded, then devoured by it. Laura Pedersen's world, like ours, is at different times, painful and exhilarating. It is made gloomy by moments of profound loss--as on the occasion of a loved one's death; but promising even then, when it offers the central character in THE BIG SHUFFLE, Hallie Palmer, a means of coping with her grief while helping her mother and younger brothers and sisters to deal with theirs.
There is something both delightfully innocent and wholesome about Hallie Palmer and those qualities remain intact even when she brazenly reveals to the reader the exact numerical makeup of her hand during a game of Strip Poker, or when she casually describes the "faint but distinctive aroma of marijuana" in a room where fun-seeking college kids gather as a refuge from their more serious studies. What is noteworthy, I believe, is that Hallie can never be defined by her involvement in card playing or her physical closeness to kids who sometimes choose to drift off aimlessly in a cloud of pot. They remain trifles in the exciting life of a young and admirable young lady, whow is infinetly more substantial as an impressive and attractive heroic figure on a mission to bring life back to a mother whose grief has thrown her into a seemingly everlasting state of intense mourning and helpless siblings who must recover from the devastating and riddlesome loss of a beloved father.
During Hallie's journey, she becomes aware of the matters of life which are often taken for granted or simply denied. One recalls that at first, when she learns about her father's serious heart attack, her response is a combination of childish anger and denial:"Huh? My dad--heart attack--impossible!" she convinces herself; "He's young and strong and not even forty!" But later, toward the end of the novel she is able to observe that her mother suddenly begins to look older, perhaps even a bit wizened. In only a few months, then, she begins to take on the sometimes grim but important knowledge involving the physical realities of youth and old age, life and oncoming death; and she generously shares her newfound wisdom with the reader in a most delightfully forthright manner. And so, in this wonderful new Laura Petersen story, Hallie Palmer, with the help of some friends, particularly her dear theatrical mentor and adored buddy, Bernard, manges to turn a deep personal sorrow into a kind of celebratoin of discovery and existence. And we find ourselves literally cheering her on along the way!
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