By definition, Caroline Troyer is a healer. In her rural Canadian town she is regarded as a supernatural being. When she heals, light emanates from her and people flock near her. Sixty people, well maybe more like 30, well at least 12 people (depending on who's recounting the story) were seen following Caroline the night she cured Old Frank's cancer.
In Greg Hollingshead's The Healer, journalist Tim Wakelin sets out to find the real story behind Caroline and her special powers. Recently widowed, he wants to get away from the big city and the memories of his wife. By pretending he's looking for a country property, Tim thinks he has the perfect "in" with her father Ross, a realtor.
Caroline's story has been told before, but Tim, the skeptic, has a new angle -- Caroline, he's sure, is not a healer. His "hick superstition story" will reveal her as the "attention seeking daughter of dysfunction" she must certainly be.
Caroline is an interesting product of small-town rearing mixed with her father's penchant for abuse. Withdrawn and quiet, Caroline listens from her room as her parents discuss her career capabilities and marketing her healing powers. She never interrupts or adds to the conversation. But she does decide to stop healing.
An early turning point occurs when Tim makes an appointment for his first round of house hunting. While Caroline is driving him around, she has what he can only imagine is an epileptic seizure. Tim gets her to the hospital and gets out of town. However, once back in the city, he turns around, unable to leave Caroline, but not knowing what else he's going to do.
In the Canadian countryside Tim finds himself vulnerable to the same distortion of reality the town is under. Reality becomes dreamlike and truth becomes clearer and less important. He realizes he is looking for a country property and he isn't looking for a story. More importantly, he admits to himself he is looking to be healed.
Short chapters shift narration between each character revealing all sides of the story. The countryside becomes its own character, at times interacting with the characters more than they interact with each other. To most it is a familiar, a friend, it is predictable and helpful. To Tim it is an unknown, an enemy.
Back in town, Tim buys a cabin and waits for something to happen. Happen it does. The same night Caroline is taken to the hospital, her mother also admits being severely beaten by her husband. Ross flees on foot wandering the surrounding forest looking for Caroline. To explain? To apologize? We don't know.
Why Caroline and Tim feel so connected is never made clear. Hollingshead assumes the reader will accept the story's plausibility without providing much explanation. The remainder of the book delves into a nonsensical search party where everyone is looking for someone or something else, but not always knowing what or whom they are looking for.
The novel uses little dialogue to further the story. In fact, it may have too little to keep interest at times. Characters wander lost through the forest, and their hunger-induced flashbacks and musings are, at times, too long. They learn to constantly re-evaluate each moment as they learn more about themselves and their world. This keeps the novel moving when circling the forest begins to get old.
The spiritual overtones are strong in the book but not related to a specific religion. The townspeople assume Caroline's healing power is from God. Tim prods her for her religious allegiances and she insists she has none. However, through Caroline the story explores spirituality and human emotion in an unconventional manner. The question is always there: Is Caroline a healer?
The Healer redefines the criteria to be a spiritual healer; its solutions are not answers, but they satisfy in a different way. ©
