The Back Cover

Hannah Stephenson

That Tune Clutches My Heart, Paul Headrick

Set in Vancouver in 1948, Paul Headrick’s first novel takes the form of a high school student’s diary entries.  May Sutherland (the narrator) enters high school and discovers that the students have split into two factions: those who like Frank Sinatra, and those who like Bing Crosby.  Headrick’s disarmingly wholesome novel centres on May’s status as an intelligent observer who refuses to choose a side; through amusingly formal and methodical diary entries, May investigates music, friendship, dating, and family.

The title comes from the lyrics of “Begin the Beguine,” a song that May uses to study differences between the “Frankians and Bingites” (since both Sinatra and Crosby performed the song).  In one entry, May scientifically defines, “Bing Crosby says, “settle down, because life is ordinary and you won’t be missing anything.” Frank Sinatra says, “thrills are what make life worth living.”

Headrick’s narration through May is appropriately self-conscious, restrained, and naive.  In describing the end of the day at school, May writes, “[the students] dispersed into the leafy autumn streets of our innocent youth.  But I should stop earlier. ‘Leafy autumn streets’ makes the point.” 

However appropriate Headrick’s style, the restrictions of the form and May’s voice keep the reader at arm’s length from the story.  I kept expecting a twist, something subversive or shocking (perhaps due to portrayals of the contemporary teenage life that I’d read and enjoyed recently).  Though punctuated with brief comments on sex, gender, and family conflict, the narration only hints at what might be happening offstage.  For example, in one entry, May writes, “I think for some reason that it is because of Mother and Daddy that I cannot imagine Douglas kissing me.  That is, it is because they are unhappy.”  Headrick limits the depth of May’s written observations, which might prevent readers from seeing this as a relatable story.  That said, the novel is enjoyable and full of wit (May congratulates herself for using words like “endoplasmic reticulum” and “erstwhile” in conversation).  Wilfully wholesome, That Tune Clutches My Heart offers a charming, light-hearted glimpse of a bygone era.