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stephbaker's review
4.0
What a beautiful assembly of stories exploring human nature at a place where walls are down: home. Followed by the wonderful love and joy dogs can bring to any low moment. A great Canadian read.
robotswithpersonality's review
There were charming moments, but there was a lot more hard realities of being a landlady who wanted to paint, (the part that skewers the Victoria art scene snobs didn't last long enough) for twenty years starting in 1913. Carr is as flawed as her tenants, and subject to the attitudes of the time: scandalized by unmarried couples, underwear hanging to dry on a front window curtain rod, etc.
As it turns out, there were also 50 pages about breeding English Bobtails. I'll warn the fellow animal lovers/vegans: there are a number of heartbreaking passages.
⚠️animal death, animal cruelty, period typical misogyny/heteronormativy/ableism, outdated/offensive terminology, classism
As it turns out, there were also 50 pages about breeding English Bobtails. I'll warn the fellow animal lovers/vegans: there are a number of heartbreaking passages.
⚠️animal death, animal cruelty, period typical misogyny/heteronormativy/ableism, outdated/offensive terminology, classism
ampersunder's review
2.0
Emily Carr seems to have liked animals much more than people, and this book is about how horrible people are and how wonderful dogs are. I first bought this book years ago because I enjoyed reading Klee Wyck for a class, and I probably would have liked this more had I read it back then. But I lean more toward compassion and understanding than I used to, so it was difficult to enjoy this.
However, her style of writing can be quite refreshing, and there were a couple of memorable passages:
"Poetical extravagance over 'pearly dew and daybreak' does not ring true when that most infernal of inventions, the alarm clock, wrenches you from sleep, rips a startled heart from your middle and tosses it on to an angry tongue, to make ugly splutterings not complimentary to the new morning; down upon you spills cold shiveriness -- a new day's responsibilities have come."
"People in the house moved quietly. Human voices were tuned so low that the voices in inanimate things -- shutting of doors, clicks of light switches, crackling of fires -- swelled to importance. Clocks ticked off the solemn moments as loudly as their works would let them."
However, her style of writing can be quite refreshing, and there were a couple of memorable passages:
"Poetical extravagance over 'pearly dew and daybreak' does not ring true when that most infernal of inventions, the alarm clock, wrenches you from sleep, rips a startled heart from your middle and tosses it on to an angry tongue, to make ugly splutterings not complimentary to the new morning; down upon you spills cold shiveriness -- a new day's responsibilities have come."
"People in the house moved quietly. Human voices were tuned so low that the voices in inanimate things -- shutting of doors, clicks of light switches, crackling of fires -- swelled to importance. Clocks ticked off the solemn moments as loudly as their works would let them."
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