Review: Sigrid Macdonald's Finding Lisa

Author: Sigrid Macdonald

Publisher: TotalRecall Publications,Inc

ISBN: 9781590952511

With her debut novel, Finding Lisa, set in Ottawa, Ontario in 2004,  Sigrid Macdonald has written perceptively about a forty-year-old woman facing a crisis of self-identity and self-confidence that is commonly referred to as a “midlife crisis.”

Tara, on the other hand, is imminently predictable, loyal, and hard-working, who is employed as a nurse in the short-term rehabilitation unit of a local hospital. In the past, Tara was proud of these characterizations. Recently, she feels ill-fit for the life she is leading and believes she needs to give herself a self-evaluation about where she wants to be in life rather then where she is now. She is married to a university professor, Mark, and their marriage is not exactly in great shape and is on the brink of dissolving. Neither one of them is ready to face reality. The couple has a teenage son, Devon and his relationship with his mother is far from perfect despite her good intentions.

One of the secrets Tara divulges to Lisa is her obsession with a twenty-four-year-old Alain Rivard, an assistant manager of the meat department in a local supermarket. She is so crazy about Alain that she increases her trips to his store, doubles her meat orders, and even has erotic dreams about him where they are making passionate love. Eventually, she realizes that her obsession with Alain had not caused the breakdown of her marriage but was simply a blatant reminder of how little desire she had for her husband. 

Lisa confides to Tara that she is pregnant and suspects that the guy who impregnated her was the result of a one night stand with a total stranger that she met someone at a bar when she was under the influence of drugs. All she remembers is being in his apartment, putting on her clothes back on, and asking the guy if it was alright for her to drive.

A few days after Lisa's revelation to Tara that she was pregnant, Tara telephones her to find out if she told Ryan of her pregnancy. A concerned Ryan answers the phone and asks Tara if she has heard from Lisa, whom he has not heard from for a few days. Tara is now wondering if there is something more that is going on between Ryan and Lisa, and if he was aware of Lisa's pregnancy. After some hesitation, the police are contacted, and a search for the missing Lisa begins to take shape involving the Ottawa Police and dozens of volunteers. The fear is that the longer the search continues the chance of finding Lisa alive diminishes.  Eventually, Lisa's locked abandoned car turns up with her purse and belongings inside, but still no trace of Lisa.

Finding Lisa is a commendable reflective novel, and Macdonald explores a familiar theme with freshness and aplomb. The narrative advances on the power of the author's principal character, Tara, as well as moments that engender conflicting and unexpected emotions. It is an intensely gripping portrait of a woman overcome by the fear of turning forty and trying to keep her life from spinning out of control. While a good deal happens in this novel, the plot is the vehicle for a thoughtful exploration of what it is like for a woman to face up to midlife. Ironically, as Lisa realizes, it was the loss of her best friend that forced her to find herself. And as she states: “ I realized that just as Lisa had taken too many risks in life, I had taken too few.”

FOLLOW HERE TO READ NORM'S INTERVIEW WITH  SIGRID MACDONALD