The Back of the Turtle

Dorian is the CEO of Domidion. A wry caricature of a charismatic corporate fiend, Dorian has no conscience or qualms about evildoing. He is Gabriel’s moral foil. Where Gabriel is driven to a suicide attempt by his guilt over GreenSweep, Dorian is indifferent to the myriad of disasters Domidion is responsible for. The only things that matter to him are power and the accoutrements of his wealth: shiny new properties, silk tries, limo rides. Lengthy descriptive passages allow the reader the vicarious thrill of picking out a $25,000 watch and eating at the greatest restaurants in Toronto. Dorian’s obvious delight in his wealth conveys the seductive nature of his lifestyle and illustrates the temptation to give up morality for hedonism.

In a novel centered around human bonds, Dorian maintains a community of one. He willingly lives a life of sleek isolation and finds pleasure only in luxury. His astronomical wealth also allows him to observe death and suffering from a distance. Untouchable by the consequences of Domidion’s mistakes, he can overwrite these tragedies with a more pleasant narrative of his own creation. He deals in fluent doublespeak and excuses, deftly dodging responsibility for his choices.

Even so, death chases Dorian through the pages of The Back of the Turtle, beginning with headaches and nausea and ending with an implied diagnosis of terminal cancer. Toward the end of the novel, moments of humanity crack through Dorian’s cold veneer as he ruminates anxiously about whether his time on Earth will mean anything after he dies. He ultimately solves even this fundamentally existential question with money, naming a high-end property after himself.

Dorian’s character epitomizes the uncomfortable truth that the world is not a fair place. There is no guarantee of karmic retribution. The wealthy and powerful can get away with amoral acts and escape the very suffering they carelessly inflict on the less fortunate. The only reckoning Dorian faces by the novel’s close is the same ending that every person, good or bad, will face in time.

Dorian’s story is also a cautionary tale about what can happen to a human who turns their back entirely on others and thinks only of themself. King gives him the Achilles heel of his failing health to emphasize that no one can fully buy their way out of the tragedies of the human experience.

Crisp is an esoteric man who speaks in a briny dialect laden with mythological references. King frames Crisp as a godlike figure who possesses an impossible reserve of knowledge about both the past and the future. Crisp references immortality several times and seems to exist at the borders of the laws of physics, often described as melting away into the fog or the waters of the hot springs. His power to see beyond the surface allows him to observe the duality of good and bad in all things and people, including Gabriel.

Crisp carries the secrets of Samaritan Bay’s history, and consequently he holds the key to its future. Together with his dog Soldier, he brings together the main players in the story, intervening at key moments to ensure the necessary bonds form. Crisp forces none of his friends into action; he only suggests the correct path forward and waits until they are ready to take it.

Throughout the novel, Crisp maintains an unfailing optimism that’s based in his belief that everything happens in cycles. He knows that no ending is permanent, and he doesn’t wallow in grief or guilt because of his certainty that life will return to the decimated town. If Crisp is indeed an immortal being, his attitude toward Samaritan Bay’s revival implies that he has seen the same pattern play out again and again throughout history. This supports the novel’s hopeful conceit that life will always triumph in the end.

A talented artist who left the Smoke River Reserve for Toronto after high school and returned only after The Ruin, Mara lives in a rented house on the edge of town. She struggles with remorse over missing the disaster that killed her friends and family, but she must overcome her survivor’s guilt and reckon with the ghosts of her past. Eventually, she moves back into her family’s old home and bonds with Gabriel, the brother of her late best friend Lilly. Mara has a strong physical connection to the reserve, as she “could travel the land on the rhythms of the ground” (157). This connection grounds her in the wake of her losses.

Despite her grief, Mara actively pursues a relationship with Gabriel. She challenges his suicidal ideation by indirectly asking him if he “[believes] in life” after loss (180). When she discovers his role in the Kali Creek disaster, she must deal with the feelings she’s developed for the man who caused the destruction of her entire community.

At the end of the novel, Mara forgives Gabriel. She rescues him from a second suicide attempt by intentionally putting herself in danger so that he can save her and, by extension, himself. Their mutual care brings Gabriel back from the brink and gives Mara the answers she needs about the destruction of her community.

Sonny, whom Gabriel meets on the beach of Samaritan Bay shortly after his first suicide attempt, is a boy later revealed to be Crisp’s nephew. Sonny has an unspecified intellectual delay, and he perceives the world in a childlike manner. He describes major events in highly simplistic terms, calling the destruction of the town “That One Bad Day” (27). He shows a keen interest in nature, especially the sea turtles, as well as his lost community. Sonny’s father, Crisp’s twin brother, is heavily implied to be dead or to have moved away from Samaritan Bay. Sonny seems unaware of this and repeatedly knocks on father’s door, hoping he’ll answer.

Although they are initially strangers, Sonny has a direct connection to Gabriel as one of the residents of Samaritan Bay still affected by the GreenSweep disaster. Like Crisp, Sonny resonates with the flow of life and remains steadfastly hopeful for the revival of the community. Unlike Crisp, who is intimately connected to everyone to the point of transcendence, Sonny stays on the outskirts of the group proper. His story mostly intertwines with the natural world: the sea turtles, birds, and even Soldier the dog. He believes that the black-haired people are the lost souls of the First Nations people who once lived in Samaritan Bay, and he takes joy in the sight of them, believing they signify the return of life to the town. He builds a makeshift lighthouse on the beach in an attempt to guide them—both the sea turtles and the First Nations ghosts—home; this effort later causes the lost ship Anguis to draw near, putting the town at risk of a second massive disaster.