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cb_reads_reviews 's review for:
Pandora
by Sylvia Fraser, Lola Lemire Tostevin
"Pandora", Sylvia Fraser's debut novel (1972), is an exquisite composition of moments in the life of Pandora Gothic, a tenacious and precocious child growing up in WWII Canada. Poetic in its delivery, Pandora's perspectives of life as a 5-7 year old are told in rich metaphor. Fraser's ability to bring to life the classroom life of Laura Secord Public School is vivid and sometimes shocking in its representation of the brutalities of childhood exhibited in their own attempts to create societal structures and hierarchies. The birthday invitation scene evokes a particular pathos for anyone who has stood on the outside looking in.
“Pandora” is less a coming-of-age story and more an enigmatic journey into the realization of self. Confined by the expectations of parents, family members and her peers, Pandora holds her ground in often dramatic and elaborate refusals to change simply to satisfy the desires of others.
As a portrait of wartime Canada, “Pandora” is a tableau of society working together: Collectors of recyclables, users of ration tickets, and organizers of social teas for the creation of comfort boxes to send to soldiers. The paradoxes and hypocrisies of the class differences are laid bare, with posturing for social capital evident, though Pandora’s mother, Adelaide, remains a paragon of moral rectitude throughout. Fraser also explores the patriarchal nature of Pandora’s experiences and highlights the often subtle ways in which women pushed against rigid expectations. With the end of the war, the cracks in the veneer of imposed gender roles widen, showing the possibilities for a child who always wants more than life is willing to give her.
“Pandora” is less a coming-of-age story and more an enigmatic journey into the realization of self. Confined by the expectations of parents, family members and her peers, Pandora holds her ground in often dramatic and elaborate refusals to change simply to satisfy the desires of others.
As a portrait of wartime Canada, “Pandora” is a tableau of society working together: Collectors of recyclables, users of ration tickets, and organizers of social teas for the creation of comfort boxes to send to soldiers. The paradoxes and hypocrisies of the class differences are laid bare, with posturing for social capital evident, though Pandora’s mother, Adelaide, remains a paragon of moral rectitude throughout. Fraser also explores the patriarchal nature of Pandora’s experiences and highlights the often subtle ways in which women pushed against rigid expectations. With the end of the war, the cracks in the veneer of imposed gender roles widen, showing the possibilities for a child who always wants more than life is willing to give her.