I tried to like this book but in the end I just didn't think it was that good or illuminating. I liked Sam's story and Timmy's but I found Delilah's coarse and disturbing. And the esoteric arguments for God a bit opaque. ( )

Amanda Leduc has captured thoughts and emotions from our society in her novel The Miracles of Ordinary Men that perhaps haven’t been fully expressed by us all yet. Her characters fumble and struggle with life unsure on how to move forward with it. This is one of those reads that needs to be savoured and pondered over. Not one that is read quickly and forgotten about.

http://tinyurl.com/kzrezjz

I am loath to resort to using standard book-reviewing clichés. But they creep in.

How many times can I say something is beautiful without calling it "beautiful" but without resorting to "magical", "profound", "deeply important", "urban fairy tale of loneliness and family and sex and self"?

The Miracles of Ordinary Men left me breathless. I couldn't put it down, and several other book review clichés. It made me grateful for being able to read, and grateful for Leduc existing and having worked so hard to create this. A beautiful, brutal, complicated and disturbing tale, it reminded me of Angela Carter's work, as well as Jason Hrivnak's The Plight House. Wim Wenders' film featuring angels, Wings of Desire. Not the one with Nicholas Cage, the first one, auf Deutsch. I have long been fascinated with angels and devils and reality and reality's mutability, and this novel was a fantastic exploration of so much of that. ( )

This book is tough to rate in terms of stars so I will decline--it's beautifully written and full of heart and warmth. The questions provoked in the reader are worth asking. But I found the relationship between two of the main characters too dark and too brutal to enjoy. I found myself wincing at Lila's language (although it's true to her character and the other characters are always nagging her about it) because I listened to it on audible. Reading it inside my head might have been easier to filter. And for those two reasons, I would hesitate to recommend it. Mind you, most of my reading friends are tougher than I am!

But aside from my own personal squeamishness, I must enthusiastically congratulate Amanda (I believe this is her first published novel) on her daring use of magical realism. Bravo! The style is tough to pull off and she does it so convincingly where others often fail. Also, I found so much evidence of kindred spirits in Amanda's choice of references (S. Kierkegaard, Joni Mitchell etc.) I loved loved loved the way questions about God and our place as human beings in the universe were brought up, explored, and left for the reader to ponder. There was transcendence and most important of all in stories: HOPE. I respect that kind of writing. The characters were complex and the plot was unpredictable. The descriptions of Vancouver, Victoria and the road to Tofino made me positively homesick for the West Coast (as I'm from there.) And finally, how could I resist a story in which a cat plays a major role--this is a time honoured tradition among the best writers (Think Timothy Findley, T.S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll.)

I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future novels, Amanda. Thank you very much for this one. ( )