Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper ***

Etta, aged 83, suddenly decides to leave her farm in Sakatchewan, her husband Otto, and walk to the east coast to find the sea.Russell, their friend and a former suitor of Etta's sets out to find her, upset that Otto, who fought in the war before marrying Etta, understands why she has gone and why he must let her do this.  Meanwhile, Etta meets James on the road- a faithful companion, although the reader is never really sure if James is actually there or not.

The novel is a fairly quick, tender read, and the author's style can best be described as quirky. The novel moves back and forth in time, and actually some of the characters seem to interconnect in different ways as well.

I'm not sure I liked the ending! I think maybe Etta and Otto become one before they even enter the water- sometimes Otto is the subject of the sentence, but the pronoun is a female one in the same sentence. A bit confusing, but I think the author is telling us there are no pat answers, and there could be several possible scenarios- she uses this technique once in the book while Etta is walking eastward.

The author confesses she writes in a very linear fashion, and it seems to work well for her. 

But I can't give it more than three stars, simply because of the non- ending!