Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... A Bird in the House (origineel 1963; editie 1989)door Margeret Laurence (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkA Bird in the House door Margaret Laurence (1963)
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Strong characters both female and male, with broadly different perspectives throughout. Particular attention of course is paid to the protagonist, young Vanessa, but although perhaps the female characters are the focus, Laurence is fair and generous to the male species as well. The language is also descriptive but not so much that there is a surfeit of verbiage. One feels the indolent breezes of summer and smells the dust, the loneliness of the spinster aunt, and the sorrow of the mother. A wonderful collection of connected stories (so that it's all but a novel). This is a small book of short stories. But, like The Stone Angel and A Jest of God, they all take place in the fictional town of Manawaka which is a thinly disguised Neepawa, MB where Laurence grew up. According to a Winnipeg Free Press article published at the time of her death in 1987 some people in Neepawa resented the way Laurence portrayed the town. This article says that only a few dozen people attended the memorial service in Neepawa "in sharp contrast to a standing-room-only tribute Friday in Toronto." I am indebted to the person who included a copy of this article in this book. I only found it as I finished the first story so it was a complete surprise to me. Vanessa McLeod is the central character of the stories. Isabel Huggan, in the afterward to the book, confirms what I suspected i.e. that these stories are autobiographical. Thus, I know quite a bit more about Peggy Wemyss than I did before. Vanessa and Peggy both lost their fathers at a young age. They both tried writing stories from a young age, honing their craft. They both could hardly wait to get out of their small town. Obviously, though, while Peggy while waiting to escape she was also observing all the people, tucking away things that emerged almost 25 years later when this book was written. It's hard to pick a favourite story because they were all great. I think that the one that affected me the most was probably "The Half-Husky". It's the story of a dog that Vanessa was given by the man who brought birch firewood for the family. Vanessa called him Nanuk in honour of his Husky lineage. Unfortunately Nanuk became the brunt of cruelty perpetrated by the newspaper boy. He became aggressive with anyone outside of the family and had to be euthanized. All these years later I can still feel the outrage Vanessa/Peggy felt. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Manawaka-serie (Short stories) Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)New Canadian Library (96)
One of Canada's most accomplished authors combines the best qualities of both the short story and the novel to create a lyrical evocation of the beauty, pain, and wonder of growing up. In eight interconnected, finely wrought stories, Margaret Laurence recreates the world of Vanessa MacLeod - a world of scrub-oak, willow, and chokecherry bushes; of family love and conflict; and of a girl's growing awareness of and passage into womanhood. The stories blend into one masterly and moving whole: poignant, compassionate, and profound in emotional impact. In this fourth book of the five-volume Manawaka series, Vanessa MacLeod takes her rightful place alongside the other unforgettable heroines of Manawaka: Hagar Shipley in The Stone Angel, Rachel Cameron in A Jest of God, Stacey MacAindra in The Fire-Dwellers, and Morag Gunn in The Diviners. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
My favorite characters were Aunt Edna, Ewen, and Chris.
None of the stories are favorites and I skipped the "Half Husky,"
knowing that with all the human deaths, a cruel dog one was likely to follow, ( )