|
|
Sold Out
Book Categories |
A stranger emerges from the snow-swept prairie, and the moment a young girl touches the "coin of frostbite" on his cheek, she sets off a rivalry that will span 30 years and follow her from the Saskatchewan dust bowl to apple-plenty Ottawa and the humid bustle of New York City. "A child falls in love with a man," the tale goes, "and the man is seduced by the intensity he has generated. Then his attention shifts to something else. End of story." But this is hardly the extent of Elizabeth Hay's Giller-nominated debut novel, A Student of Weather. For when easterner Maurice Dove arrives in parched Willow Bend to study the unusual phenomenon of the Hardy farm's being a veritable "magnet for moisture," he irrevocably disrupts the rhythm of the routine and the hearts of two Hardy sisters: golden Lucinda June and small, dark, unpredictable Norma Joyce. A Student of Weather is a deftly textured novel about how accidents, in life and weather, impact destiny and how reticence can maim and claim lives. It is about arrivals and leave-takings, forgiveness bestowed then retracted, and the power of artwork to redeem and heal. Hay builds her characters and the world they inhabit from the small details: domestic, elemental, psychological, mythological. The novel's dark luminosity is perfectly embodied by the sisters, whose complex psyches lurk, subdermally, beneath every act, gesture, glance. The saga moves restlessly back and forth across the country, but its true beauty and strength lie in the Saskatchewan sections: the passages describing a seemingly barren grassland teeming with life are like "stepping outside into a burst of liquid birdsong." --Diana Kuprel
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Richard Steed
reviewed A student of weather on July 02, 2015
A student of weather
A Student of Weather was today's choice read to recover from travel, jet lag, and the unpacking and laundry tasks that come with it.
I had high hopes for the novel: It's set during the 1930s in depression-hit dust bowls of Saskatchewan and the New York of the 1960s, and it's by a Canadian author.
The last one, the Canadian factor, may have worked against the book. I'm only half kidding. I love Canadian writing. However, I am also reminded of Will and Ian Ferguson's summary of the Canadian literary novel (found in How to Be a Canadian):
"Handy tip! Write about a family gathering, a funeral or some sort of homecoming. That's the easiest way to bring characters together without having to construct a plot. And make sure to include the free-spirited sister, the recovering alcoholic brother, the other sister (the one who gave up on her dreams and is married to an abusive and/or aloof man) and - last but not least - the standard-issue abusive and/or aloof father figure. Add to the mix some cryptic dialogue about a past betrayal, maybe a dark secret or two, and half-bake at 40F. Do you see how these things just write themselves?"
The thing is, my assessment of every Canadian novel I have read since the Fergusons' above summary has started with a categorisation: either the book fits the description or it doesn't.
The ones that didn't fit the Fergusons' description were, on the whole, much more enjoyable and interesting reads.
Sadly, A Student of Weather fits the above description to a T (except there was no recovering alcoholic brother, tho there was a brother who died early on... I am counting this as half a point.). What is even sadder, is that I could not find any other aspect that made this book compelling or that kept me from skim-reading some parts.
It didn't help that the centre premise of the book is based on a love triangle that features some selfish asshat of a guy and two sisters who fight over his affections (which are always engaged elsewhere and for some reason the sisters just cannot see it)... Ugh.
The writing, tho, was very accomplished and I do look forward to trying the other book by Hay on Mt. TBR, Late Nights on Air.
Seriously, if that one also has a love triangle in it, I will DNF it faster than than I can type out the book title.
Login|Complaints|Blog|Games|Digital Media|Souls|Obituary|Contact Us|FAQ
CAN'T FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR? CLICK HERE!!! X
You must be logged in to add to WishlistX
This item is in your Wish List
X
This item is in your Collection
A student of weather
X
This Item is in Your Inventory
A student of weather
X
You must be logged in to review the productsX
X
X
Add A student of weather, , A student of weather to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
X
Add A student of weather, , A student of weather to your collection on WonderClub |
