Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut by William Wodhams

Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut by William Wodhams delivers twenty delightful chapters. With each entry, the reader is carried deeper, and often humourously, into the art world of Declan Tucker, a recent graduate of the Laurentian Academy of Graphic Design. The opening sentence grabbed me as an immediate introduction to the inner workings of Declan Tucker, the endearing protagonist.

“The sad truth is that I had sent my résumé to 147 of the top graphic design houses in the world and not heard back from a single one.”

Declan’s CV went into great detail and “stretched to just over thirty-two single-spaced pages”. With no response to Declan’s request for a top artist’s position, he reluctantly takes a job in town with the local newspaper, as his parents had often suggested. But Declan’s thoughts are not nearly as practical as his parents’.

“The local newspaper? A crude and despicable suggestion, in my mind, eclipsing mere insult and verging on threat. I should have my parents arrested. After all, these were the same parents who called me a prodigy every day since fifth grade, had raised me to believe I was an artistic genius sans précédent. But as they are providing me with shelter, sustenance, and spending money, I was forced to reconsider.”

So begins our launch into the mind and life of Declan Tucker. Things at the newspaper do not work out as Declan imagines. When given a task, he is filled with overwhelming artistic design thoughts, but his boss just wants the basic advertising campaign completed as per request of the company paying for the ad, and delivered on time. Declan has a tough time fitting into the mainstream demand of an employee, causing stress and confusion for his boss, and considerable upset that forces him to make a decision to leave for Paris with only a few personal things and a credit card.

Once in Paris, on his own, following in the footsteps of his idol Claude Monet, Declan has to make some grown-up decisions. Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut is told in first-person, so one is always with Declan and his thoughts, in a very personal way. The character of Declan was created with precision and insightfulness by author William Wodhams. With Wodhams’s superb writing, one quickly understands that Declan is facing the world with his own unique challenges. His thoughts about himself and how he fits into the place he now finds himself, are continuously at odds.

This is a coming-of-age story that holds Declan at the centre. Scattered about are his eccentric array of Parisian acquaintances and friends who live on the fringes. Declan is committed to his constant search for his dream and that one person who could be at the core of it all. The characters that intersect with Declan are expertly fashioned and uniquely colourful: a ghost with ideas of his own, a deluded elder who thinks of himself as a great philosopher, an artist from the streets who befriends him named Gaétan, and many others who circumvent the story, creating a quirky population of homeless and destitute people. Declan garners something from these odd people who form a community of sorts. It is something that has desperately, previously, eluded him; a community where he fits in, just as he is. But, the question becomes: How can Declan pursue his artistic dreams in Paris, where it’s loaded with artist hopefuls on every corner, and still maintain his place within the community that has become a place of friendship and acceptance?

Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut by William Wodhams is an impressive romp through Paris, covering the mainstays, like the Louvre, as well as the lesser known undergrounds and alleyways of the City of Lights. We meet up with artists long past and the mention of their works, blended within the story, had me Googling for images of their paintings. Wodhams has woven a fine, rich tapestry of a story. Declan is a split-screen; a fish out of water crossed with loveable artist, who has very high hopes. Both dimensions run smack into reality in the dark recesses of Declan’s mind and the dingy locations of Paris’s underbelly. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut. Once you meet Declan Tucker you’ll find that, by the book’s end, it’s really tough to let him go. One thing is certain: You will be rooting for him as much as I was – every step of the way!

William Wodhams is an author and award-winning copywriter, inspiring people all over Canada with the life-changing possibilities of cell phones, hamburgers, and drywall. He graduated from McMaster with a degree in English & Cultural Studies in 2023. You can find out more about William and his work at williamwodhams.com.

Publisher: AOS Publishing (November 20, 2024)
Hardcover 8.5″ x 5.5″ | 318 pages
ISBN: 9781990496691

Carrie Stanton

Managing Editor

TMR’s Managing Editor Carrie Stanton has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She is the author of The Jewel and Beast Bot, and picture books, Emmie and the Fierce Dragon and The Gardener. Carrie loves to write stories that grow wings and transport readers everywhere. She reads and enjoys stories from every genre.