2015 books: 1-4

[the_siobhan]

    

Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood I think I might have originally read this book in school. Lady Oracle starts off with the main character having just successfully faked her own death and moved to Italy. She then tells the story of her life up to that point and it turns out that re-inventing herself and moving to another country is something she had done before. She grew up with an abusive mother and a mostly absent father and she left home as soon as she got an opportunity. As a result she has learned to split herself into different people to protect herself from those closest to her. I always have trouble reading about horrible childhoods and I end up rushing through those parts - probably the first third of the book. The rest of it is delightful, however. The main character ricochets from one disaster to the next, never completely in control of her own life. Atwood ends her story with the character on the cusp of yet another bad decision and I finished the book wanting more.

    

The Underdogs by William Weintraub I bought this in 1979. I'm pretty sure it was another Book Club feature. It was written in the lead-up to the first Quebec referendum on separation and depicts life for "Anglos" in Montreal 20 years after succession. ("Anglos" in this case refers to anybody who is not French - Irish, Jewish and Caribbean residents are also considered Anglos.) In the meantime the remainder of Canada has been annexed by the US. I only made it about three chapters into this book before I chucked it. The writing isn't very good and the entire premise seemed to be that the French of Quebec are either so stupid or so mean-spirited that they would happily screw their own economy just so they won't have to do business with any English-speakers. Never mind that major corporations like SunLife and CIBC manage to have offices in countries from Jamaica to Dubai; in Quebec their abandoned office towers have been converted to indoor farms. The first actual French person in the story is a mustache-twirling villain. I know it's supposed to be a satire, but it's not clever and it's not funny.

I remember thinking it was kind of dumb the first time I read it and it has not aged well. Into the bin.




    

Away by Jane Urquhart I know I got this from an ex, so it's been in my possession for at least 20 years. An elderly woman on the shore of Lake Ontario remembers her ancestors and how her family came to Canada. The first story she remembers is how her great-grandmother Mary came to be "away". Away is the term the local villagers use for people who have gone off with the Sidhe and left a replica in their place. Mary's attachment to the spirit world is something she hands down to her daughter - and then to her great-granddaughter - along with her red hair and pale skin.

Urquhart is an absolutely gorgeous writer, creating entire atmospheres with just a few sentences. She never bothers to explain whether the experiences of her women are real or not and really it's not relevant to the story. Reading this is a completely submersive experience.


    

Mister Sandman by Barbara Gowdy I first encountered Gowdy at the Erin Mills Writer's Festival. She had just published this book and I bought it immediately upon hearing her read excerpts. Gowdy's writing is always about society's oddballs - it was one of her stories that was the basis for the movie Kissed. This book is about an outwardly typical 50s family in which the father is gay, the mother is bisexual, the youngest daughter is poly, the oldest daughter has some kind of minor intellectual disability and her daughter (who the mother claims as her own child, since oldest daughter is unmarried and it is the 50s) has some form of dwarfism, is possibly autistic and also has a minor brain injury from being dropped on her head as a newborn.

I heard an interview with Gowdy shortly after reading this book where she talked about being surprised when somebody described it as being about a dysfunctional family. I tend to agree with her. As a family they are highly functional; a group of people who love each other unconditionally and gave each other shelter and support. It's as individuals that they are troubled, finding it difficult to fit in with the expectations of their time and culture. One of the things that I love about the book is how they each become more comfortable and accepting of themselves and therefore happier as time goes on, without ever losing that devotion to each other.

Comments

[silentq]

Away and Mister Sandman both sound fascinating, into the to-read list they go. :-)

[the_siobhan]

I highly recommend them both!

Are you strictly e-reader these days? If not I can put them aside for you.

[silentq]

I'm strictly physical books these days. :-) I'd love it if you could put them aside for me, thanks! I'm still plotting out this year's travel, C21 for sure, but Porter keeps tempting me with cheap Toronto fares...