Yip Tolroy is one of the most unusual characters, in both senses of the word, that I have come across. As a fictional protagonist, I think he is unique. In real life, perhaps there has been, or is, someone like him, but when he was born in 1815. his small hometown of Heron’s Creek had never seen anything like him. I would be hesitant to describe this as an extremely interesting or innovative novel. But it was a good story and I had fun and sometimes that is good enough. 3,5. His mother cared for him the best she could and soon realised that something else was wrong. He made no sound. Not a groan or a cry. When they tested his reactions, he writhed and squirmed and was in obvious pain but was completely silent.

This is a wonderful debut of a very exciting new, young writer. ‘My Name is Yip’ is a Gothic Western, an adventure story and a compelling psychological and symbolic drama.

Retailers:

Yip tells his own wild story as a memoir, so we know he survives. His mother runs a general store, and he likes to sit under a big elm outside on a stool and watch, contemplate, plan. He is accepted as belonging there, but few people make serious attempts to communicate with him.

Yip Tolroy, being mute, may not have a voice in the conventional sense of the word, but he makes himself heard in the very essence of his character, in this wonderful debut novel, that in itself yells to be heard!There is certain moments in a soul’s existence what do not arrive under any bugle or banner but sidle up as Innocent & Meek-mouthed as a short-horned cow. Only they is not so ordinary as they hope to seem but loaded up to the gills with all manner of Meanings & Implications what will play out in their wake. Yip Tolroy is born without a single hair upon his body and the inability to make any noise. Cast as nothing more than a ‘simpleton’, Yip begins his narrative reflecting on his adventurous life in The American Midwest, by scribing on his chalk slate with his three remaining fingers. Occasionally, the folksy tone veers into self-parody (“These is strange flames, said she, these is strange flames”), and a couple of opportunities to explore the big moral issues of the day – slavery and the treatment of Native Americans – are missed. After Yip is briefly held captive by an escaped slave he eventually sees him and his sister “hanging from the cottonwood … twisting & swaying in the morning breeze”. There’s little further comment on this horrific image. Later, when he encounters the Cherokee Onacona, their relationship is frustratingly short-lived: “The face of the old Indian always seemed to tell a tale I could not read … I hope he was not drove away like many.”

Once you get used to it, it reads very easily though - it is very consistently maintained throughout the novel. I don’t know if the capitalisation is based on a particular era or is peculiar to Yip. Some languages (German) capitalise nouns. I think some old writing capitalises Important Words. Yip does make his point in that way when he uses capital letters. Occasionally during the memoir, he refers to his present life to remind us that he did get through it. Mostly for me, it reads like some of the old Western mountain men and trapper books that I used to love, but Yip has a tone and spirit of his own. It’s 1815 in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, when Yip Tolroy––mute, medical anomaly, and social outcast––is born. His father has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, so he is raised by his mother: a powerful, troubled, independent woman who owns and runs a general store. She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. With the help of a retired doctor, he begins to transform his life by learning to read and write, his portal into the community a piece of slate and a supply of chalk.

Incidentally, I see the advertising material refers to it taking place in Georgia during the Georgia Gold Rush, but there is no reference in my preview copy to Georgia, and the Gold Rush isn’t really central to much of his story.