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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
Considered a classic of Canadian literature, Margaret Laurence's "The Diviners" was definitely a compelling read. Filled with complex and rich characters who are all searching for their way in life, the novel tells a solid and generally interesting story.
Told mostly in flashback, Morag Gunn's memories start out with the tragedy of her parent's death. The future writer searches for connections with people, which she does and doesn't find, while the other people in her life, in turn, search for things meaningful to them.
I enjoyed the story a great deal.
Told mostly in flashback, Morag Gunn's memories start out with the tragedy of her parent's death. The future writer searches for connections with people, which she does and doesn't find, while the other people in her life, in turn, search for things meaningful to them.
I enjoyed the story a great deal.
I think I am still processing this book, however I definitely really enjoyed the book. I found it be very real and interesting to think about the life challenges and adventures faced by Morag. I didn't find her too melancholy, I found her just to be someone who had lived through many hard and joyful times and in the end was sure of who she was and what she wanted. This book was very different from what I expect and was interested to read in the afterward by Timothy Findley how controversial the book was when it was first published. I am now very interested in ready Stone Angel, which I have heard from Laurence lovers is the best.
I discovered Margaret Laurence through the first in the Manakwa series, The Stone Angel, a marvellous novel told in the voice of an angry 90-year old woman who doesn't want to be locked up in an old folks' home. I wanted to read more, but Laurence's books are near-impossible to find. Or were, till I joined Bookmooch. Now I have three of them in my TBR pile.[return][return]I picked this first, not realising it was the last, and read it over a couple of days while stuck at home with a cold. What a marvellous writer; she pulls you into her characters' lives and dilemmas, and Morag is very real, if clearly largely autobiographical.[return][return]At one point I found myself thinking that many of these concerns have been aired many times before... intelligent girl stuck in small town, gets educated and leaves, marries the wrong man, liberates herself through writing. But then I realised that Laurence wrote this series in the 60s and 70s, before the women's movement had really started, before Margaret Atwood, before Alice Munro ... she paints the trapped lives of women and Morag's gradual letting go of her daughter and reconcilement with her past with subtlety and intelligence.
Why do schools assign this book to teens? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it was assigned to my teenage self by 30- and 40-something women. If you've read the novel you'll know what I mean.
I had to explore this novel in extreme depth, I mean poring over every word of it for months. I wound up disliking it because the characters didn't really speak to me at that time. When a novel doesn't come alive for me, it's a real chore to listen to lectures about it day after day. I should start a shelf called "Spoiled by English Teachers".
I had to explore this novel in extreme depth, I mean poring over every word of it for months. I wound up disliking it because the characters didn't really speak to me at that time. When a novel doesn't come alive for me, it's a real chore to listen to lectures about it day after day. I should start a shelf called "Spoiled by English Teachers".
It's hard to say what this book is "about" because most of what goes on is exceedingly ordinary. And yet, there are moments where the story converges into something extraordinary and these were like fireworks. It took me a bit to get into it, but the parts at the beginning are so impactful as the book goes on that it made me want to reread them. Laurence's writing is spectacular and unique. This is 100% a novel for contemplation.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a tangibly lovely novel. Morag Gunn, successful, published author, prompted by events and transitions in her Ottowa-based log home on a living river, remembers scenes from her childhood, hard-fought independence, chosen single-parenthood, moves to Vancouver and London, and her return “home” to the countryside she has come to love. The characters in her life are colorful, unpredictable, sassy and deep. She loves them and longs to not be alone. With them, though it’s not how she’d choose it, she’s very much not alone.
The "divining" of the title involves having the instinct to see treasure below the surface of things. Not only Morag's neighbor (who actually dowses for water) but also her feisty adoptive father Christie has this skill -- she explicitly equates divining with Christie's vocation as town scavenger who feeds and scours the "Nuisance Grounds" town dump. She's divining herself here.
The "divining" of the title involves having the instinct to see treasure below the surface of things. Not only Morag's neighbor (who actually dowses for water) but also her feisty adoptive father Christie has this skill -- she explicitly equates divining with Christie's vocation as town scavenger who feeds and scours the "Nuisance Grounds" town dump. She's divining herself here.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated