As for Me and My House Book

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. - Joshua 24:15

*****

While doing some research on another book and its author, I ran across a rather famous novel, Who Has Seen the Wind, by W.O. Mitchell, that is set in Saskatchewan during the 30s. I discovered that it has been taught for years in Canadian schools and universities, but in my ignorance I had never even heard of the writer or his book.

I liked the book and it led me to another novel also set in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. That happened when I ran across a review of Who Has Seen the Wind, one that was written by Craig MacBride and was published in the Toronto Review of Books.

MacBride wrote:

"Published in 1947, W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind arrived six years after As for Me and My House, Sinclair Ross's Prairie-based depression trigger, and it has the same message as its predecessor: people die, you never find God, and crops always fail."

But what really caught my eye was this:

"Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, as As for Me and My House is perfect, but it is excellent…."

I agree with MacBride that Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, but is very good. What really grabbed my attention, however, was his claim that As for Me and My House is perfect. And that's how I stumbled onto another well-known Canadian author who wrote a book that has been studied in Canadian schools and universities that I should have known about, but didn't. I ordered the book even before I finished reading MacBride's review.

But do I think that it is perfect? Well, more about that later.

One of the things that piqued my curiosity, besides the claim that it was a perfect novel, was that As for Me and My House is told entirely through the entries that a minister's wife makes in her diary. I have always liked epistolary novels if they are well-done and telling the story through the writings of a diarist would be similar.

We know her only as Mrs. Bentley for she never reveals her first name or her maiden name and not much of anything about her past before she married Phillip Bentley. However, she describes in detail Phillip's unhappy early life and upbringing.

The story opens with the Bentleys moving into a house located in Horizon, Saskatchewan. Phillip is a Protestant minister, and this is the fourth church and small town for them during twelve years of marriage. From the beginning, Mrs. Bentley lets us know through her diary entries that neither she nor her husband are satisfied with the lives they lead in small towns in which they are constantly scrutinized, commented on, and criticized by members of their congregations. Furthermore, the marriage is not a happy one.

Phillip is a preacher who has lost his calling, if he ever had one. He has some talent as a painter and sketch artist, but not for preaching or all that goes with the job - and job is all that it is to him. He would like to be an artist, but it is extremely difficult for an individual to make a living as a painter even in normal times, and this is the Great Depression, with all that entails. Phillip and his wife barely survive on what their congregations can afford to pay them, but at least they can survive.

Mrs. Bentley is frustrated too, for she has a repressed talent as well. Before her marriage she had dreams of becoming a concert pianist. She sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists who are unable to pursue their passions.

As for Me and My House is not a perfect novel. The problem, as I see it, is that we learn about only one side of this troubled marriage and that is the wife's side, because the story is told entirely through her diary. Furthermore, she is an unreliable narrator which adds even more ambiguity. We know exactly how she views things, but all we know about Phillip's views are what she says they are. Rarely does he express them and then only as his wife describes them in her diary.

It is true that the unreliability of the narrator and the ambiguity that results has provoked much discussion, speculation, and argument about the book. At times when I was reading it I even wondered if I liked the book at all. In fact, I'm going to withhold a rating until I have given it more thought.

True, it is not a perfect book, but I do think it is a worthwhile read, especially for Mrs. Bentley's lyrical descriptions of the Great Plains and the natural forces that make it the unique region that it is. In fact, in these passages Mrs. Bentley proves that in addition to being a talented pianist she missed another calling; she should have been a writer.