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megangraff's review against another edition
4.0
I gave this book an extra half star for referencing places in Ottawa and the Gatineau Hils that I remember fondly.
ginabyeg's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed Elizabeth Hay's writing style. She is very descriptive in the words she chooses.
This book really leaves the reader with lots to think about and ponder in terms of relationships, family roots/ties, and the complexities of the world in which we grow up and live in. I quite enjoyed thinking along with the narrator.
This book really leaves the reader with lots to think about and ponder in terms of relationships, family roots/ties, and the complexities of the world in which we grow up and live in. I quite enjoyed thinking along with the narrator.
in_and_out_of_the_stash's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book to start but about 2/3rds through, the style of prose became repetitive and I felt the book should have ended as it wasn't going anywhere.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
If an author can write, I mean really write, then I'm willing to read pretty much anything they care to put out there. Elizabeth Hay can write. It's an odd writing style, one which features both worn-out phrases and metaphors so startling that you have to read them a few times, both for comprehension and for the sheer enjoyment of the pictures she paints.
For a while I was able to carry it all inside me, like a big bouquet of peonies, and then I couldn't anymore. The moist, plump peony heads got to be too heavy. They were like pounds of raw hamburger hanging upside down.
The book concerns Connie, a brand new and very young teacher sent to a small Saskatchewan school in a farming community at the brink of the Great Depression. There, she tutors an older boy who can't read and is menaced in vague and uncomfortable ways by the school's principal. Her story is told by her niece, a woman who worships the strong, independent woman Connie later became and who has an unsatisfactory relationship with her own mother.
The first part of the book is perfect; an interesting story beautifully told and with a strong sense of the isolated prairie community. The book loses momentum as it continues on, so that the final chapters seem to be just treading water. However, Hay is such an accomplished writer that I found it pleasant enough to float around with her through those final chapters.
For a while I was able to carry it all inside me, like a big bouquet of peonies, and then I couldn't anymore. The moist, plump peony heads got to be too heavy. They were like pounds of raw hamburger hanging upside down.
The book concerns Connie, a brand new and very young teacher sent to a small Saskatchewan school in a farming community at the brink of the Great Depression. There, she tutors an older boy who can't read and is menaced in vague and uncomfortable ways by the school's principal. Her story is told by her niece, a woman who worships the strong, independent woman Connie later became and who has an unsatisfactory relationship with her own mother.
The first part of the book is perfect; an interesting story beautifully told and with a strong sense of the isolated prairie community. The book loses momentum as it continues on, so that the final chapters seem to be just treading water. However, Hay is such an accomplished writer that I found it pleasant enough to float around with her through those final chapters.
kimcheel's review against another edition
3.0
This book had a lot of interesting stories flowing through it, but I just don't think it delivered. There's like six degrees of separation between the reader and the action (such as it is). It's so weird, unresolved and timey wimey. Just so hard to follow. And the relationships are so freaking creepy.
emjay2021's review against another edition
3.0
I adored the first 2/3 of this book--the protagonist was well-rounded and memorable, and the situation she found herself in had some nice understated dramatic tension. But the final 1/3 was almost like another novel, and I felt the book lost a lot of steam. However, I'm giving it 3 stars because of how much I liked the first part. I think I'll just pretend that the story ends there.
baypot's review against another edition
4.0
I stumbled upon this book in the true crime section of a used bookstore in Texas. Because of this, I was disoriented by its regionalism and tone at first. Once I realized this was a NOVEL, I breathed easier and settled into its poetry. Hay's cadence is unique, and her phrasing can catch a reader off guard. This was something else I settled into as I read. I ultimately ended up reading the whole book in 24hours, and desperately wishing it would never end. This is a lovely, lovely book.
ldv's review against another edition
3.0
Rather pastoral, with so much nature in the descriptions. Meanders a bit, not everything is nearly chronological or nearly laid out. Yet the disconnects are artful in how they pick up and drop off, what is said and unsaid. Not a book to pick and put down often, or one could lose the thread and names or events that weave through the story. Is it about Connie, the aunt? Parley Burns, the pervert principal? Michael, the student with dyslexia? Or the narrator, Anne Elizabeth? (And is this based on reality or pure fiction?)
canadian_booknerd's review against another edition
2.0
This book is beautifully written and the author is very good at painting a picture of the life of a woman in the 1930s and her neice who is looking into the past. There is nothing wrong with this book. It just isn't my kind of read. There isn't enough going on. I was interested enough to finish it but I wasn't in a hurry.
eososray's review against another edition
4.0
What an enthralling story, admittedly sometimes a bit weird in the relationship department but the author is a fantastic story teller.
The narrative jumps from current to past, seemingly in the middle of a sentence. Switching from the aunt to the niece to stories of past and current happenings in both their lives.
It was really the wonderful storytelling that I appreciated in this book, the story was interesting and the characters well developed but it's the way with words that the author has and the way she puts the story together that really appeal.
The narrative jumps from current to past, seemingly in the middle of a sentence. Switching from the aunt to the niece to stories of past and current happenings in both their lives.
It was really the wonderful storytelling that I appreciated in this book, the story was interesting and the characters well developed but it's the way with words that the author has and the way she puts the story together that really appeal.