Review: When We Were Vikings

Posted by Marzie's Reads February 13, 2020

Review: When We Were Vikings

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

3.75 Stars

I've thought long and hard about how to review this novel. On the one hand, portions of it are high on charm and it's wonderful to see a novel in which the protagonist has disability issues. Zelda, a young adult, is high functioning on the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum. She lives with her older brother Gert, who has been struggling to take care of Zelda since their mother died, leaving them for a time in the care of their abusive uncle. We love Zelda and her quirky obsession with all things Viking. (Many readers may initially think that Zelda seems like she has Autism, but her high verbal functioning is one of the characteristic differences between those with FASD versus ASD.) Zelda's cognitive issues affect her ability to adjust to change and occasionally some of her reasoning skills. Gert has sheltered her from a lot and Zelda is too trusting. Gert's ex-girlfriend, Annie (AK47) is one of the few other trusted adults in her life, along with her therapist, and Marksy, her boyfriend who is also disabled and somewhat lower functioning intellectually than Zelda.

There are things that I loved in this novel, including its examination of families and disability, and its pragmatic discussion of disability and sexuality, which is such an important subject. Seeing someone with a disability as a sexual being is something we too rarely see in fiction. While I loved those aspects the lack of pragmatic detail about the financial realities of Gert and Zelda's life frustrated me. Gert is involved in criminal activities in order to support himself and Zelda. There is little background information on their financial realities that force Gert into this situation. No mention of Zelda's being on Social Security as a disabled adult child, no discussion of the impact on her still qualifying for SSI when she starts a part-time job. There is no discussion of pay equity for Zelda as a disabled person, and let me tell you, pay equity is a big issue among those who are disabled. Most of all, there is a fuzzy idealized ending in which she is working her library job and able to afford to sublet apartment that isn't subsidized housing. Having worked in child and young adult welfare for a decade and a half, I know just how complicated these issues are, and how unlikely Zelda's being able to live independently is when we have a system that is eager to declare someone who is disabled, not disabled and to stop their crucial supports like healthcare or food stamps. (Work too much and lose your SSI, and thus your Medicaid, your food stamps, etc.) While it's a feel-good story in many ways, it also does a disservice in that it gives readers the impression that a young woman like Zelda can just get a job and become fully independent, with no mention of a living wage or pay equity, healthcare, social security, or any government assistance. Its sugar-coating reinforces a "pull up your bootstraps" idea and that troubles me. Disabled adult children deserve meaningful lives and the highest degree of independence they can attain. But they need a lot of supports to achieve those goals. Those supports are not apparent in this novel.

Readers will still enjoy Zelda's wonderful voice. But if you care about the high functioning disabled adult child, do research about the pragmatics of how our system all too often makes independence unattainable.

I received a Digital Audio copy of this book from Libro.fm and a Digital Review Copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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