The protagonist in Sheree-Lee Olson’s Sailor Girl is Kate, a twenty year old photographer. Kate is attracted to ruins. Rather than photograph the picturesque scenery on the family drives she takes with her parents, she snaps shots of buildings with crumbling foundations and smashed fences.
“She couldn’t explain it. It felt right. She had always liked ruined things.
Her father’s books, her mother’s old handbags, the musty smell of her grandmother’s house in Vancouver, where as a child she would beg to be allowed to look through the trunks in the basement. They were full of yellowing movie magazines, souvenir towels, tarnished hand mirrors. It was all junk, Gram said.”
Then she enters a world very much like the damaged goods she likes to photograph. When Kate’s parents tell her they won’t finance an education in art school so she can study photography, she leaves home and finds work as a porter on a freight ship that travels around the Great Lakes. Her goal is to earn money for school and take pictures of life aboard the ship. The hours are long, the work backbreaking. Kate finds herself immersed in a gritty, harsh life, filled with alcohol, sex and rough people.
The descriptions of the water and the rhythms of life on the boats are vividly portrayed. Sailor Girl is Kate’s coming of age story. She comes to terms with her relationships with parents and shipmates. I have to say I did not find Kate to be a character I can relate to. She remained attracted to alcohol and sex with abusive men throughout. The descriptions of Kate’s life and surroundings are noteworthy, but I found the book to be dreary and depressing. ( )

This book tells the story of a confused college student who spends her summer working on freight liners on the Great Lakes. Kate, our protagonist, has gone to the boats to earn money, but she's also gone to escape her life: her seemingly too perfect sister, her parents' disappointment at her desire to become an artist, and an abusive boyfriend. On the boats Kate finds things that trouble her, like the rigid hierarchies, and the rampant sexism. But she also finds a substitute family, a group of people who care for one another in their own way. And Kate also finds danger. The aforementioned abusive boyfriend comes from the crew of her first boat, and Kate ultimately finds herself in more danger than she can possibly imagine. This is a book that tells an engaging story, but even more, this is a book about environment. Olson takes her reader to the lakes and their boats. We feel the storms, the waves, the tedium of the locks, and the residue cargoes leave behind. This is a world I didn't know existed, and Olson paints a brilliant picture. Kate is a spunky, likeable heroine, and she lives in a richly-created world. Olson creates a true sensory experience. The publisher, too, has created a sensory experience, as this is one of the most beautiful books I've had the pleasure of reading and holding. The text includes photographs and is printed on thick, textured paper. The inside covers are printed with color maps of the Great Lakes region. A pleasure to hold and a pleasure to read. ( )