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As for Me and My House [Paperback]

Sinclair Ross , Robert Kroetsch
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Jan 8 2008 New Canadian Library
“It’s an immense night out there, wheeling and windy. The lights on the street and in the houses against the black wetness, little unilluminating glints that might be painted on it. The town seems huddled together, cowering on a high tiny perch, afraid to move lest it topple into the wind.”

The town is Horizon, the setting of Sinclair Ross’ brilliant classic study of life in the Depression era. Hailed by critics as one of Canada’s great novels, As For Me and My House takes the form of a journal. The unnamed diarist, one of the most complex and arresting characters in contemporary fiction, explores the bittersweet nature of human relationships, of the unspoken bonds that tie people together, and the undercurrents of feeling that often tear them apart. Her chronicle creates an intense atmosphere, rich with observed detail and natural imagery.

As For Me and My House is a landmark work. It is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the scope and power of the Canadian novel.


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In "wind-swept, sun-burned little Horizon," Sinclair Ross sets As for Me and My House and his big, human themes of isolation, alienation and unrealized ambition. Our narrator, Mrs. Bentley, uses a diary to detail life with her husband Philip, the artist who puts aside his painting to become a small-town preacher. "What he is and what he nearly was. The failure, the compromise, the going on." Mrs. Bentley too had aspirations but gave them up to marry Philip. Her writing reveals just how brittle their relationship has become: "For hypocrisy wears hard on a man who at heart really isn't that way. As far back as I can remember, it's always been there, darkening, draining him, but with Horizon now it seems to be gathering for a crisis."

Even with disaster looming, the uneventful chronicling of a clergyman and his wife struggling through the Depression in Saskatchewan might sound dull. That is, until the reader realizes how absorbing Mrs. Bentley's ambiguous and layered diary entries can be. Ross leaves it to us to decide whether our narrator is sincere or deceptive, shrewdly aware or deep in denial, as she chronicles her interactions with her husband, the townspeople, and the false fronts which surround them. It's this complexity that makes Mrs. Bentley one of the most engaging characters in Canadian fiction and draws generations of readers back to tiny Horizon, Sask. --Carolyn Leitch --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Sinclair Ross was born on a homestead near Shelbrooke in northern Saskatchewan in 1908. He dropped out of school after grade eleven to work in a bank. After working in many small-town banks in Saskatchewan, he transferred to a bank in Winnipeg in 1933. In 1941 he published his first novel, As For Me and My House, with its evocation of prairie life during the Depression. The prairie is the major setting for his two collections of short fiction, The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories and The Race and Other Stories.

From 1942 until 1946 Ross served with the Canadian army in London, England. In 1946 he returned briefly to Winnipeg before settling in Montreal, where he continued in banking until his retirement in 1968.

Ross’ later novels, The Well, Whir of Gold, and Sawbones Memorial, continue his exploration of prairie life and its power to challenge as well as sustain its inhabitants.

Upon his retirement Ross lived in Greece and then in Spain. He returned to Montreal in 1980, and two years later moved to Vancouver.

Sinclair Ross died in Vancouver in 1996.


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Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent--but not great--Canadian novel Jan 18 2004
By K Scheffler TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Whether As For Me and My House can be considered one of the "great Canadian novels" is somewhat questionable, but there is no denying that it is a profound, complex and evocative work of literature.

Set during the Great Depression, the story revolves around the domestic life of the Bentleys, who have come to a small, isolated Saskatchewan farm-community of Horizon, where Philip Bentley has taken on role of being the town's new minister.

Ministering is something that Philip, in fact has little desire to do, and is instead obsessed with painting, to the point where his wife--through whose perspective the story is told--is neglected. There relationship is essentially broken, but the reasons for this are not simple, and this essentially is the focus of the story.

Throughout the novel, Mrs. Bentley--who is never named because the work is written in the form of journal entries--continuously explores their history, their personalities and the effect of their confined lifestyle upon themselves and one another.

Over the course of their residence in Horizon she comes to realize that the break-down of their relationship, is not so much the fault of Philip's conduct, as we are first led to believe, but fact that both have allowed themsleves to become victims of circumstance.

As For Me and My House is definitely a work worth studying, but like I initially stated, I question whether it can really be considered one of the great Canadian novels.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Candidate for the most boring book ever written Nov 28 2007
Format:Mass Market Paperback
While I understand the views of other reviewers, and might concede that Ross' treatment is a vivid exploration of the bleakness of the life of the main protagonists, I would also suggest that in this novel, were "eliciting boredom" an Olympic sport, Ross could have bored for his country. Even the part of the book dealing with the husband's extramarital affair was tedious. Anyone with an interest in developing themes of boredom and indifference in their own writing would do well to read this novel.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Canadian Literature at its' best! April 28 1999
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Through the journal entries of Mrs. Bentley, we are given a beautiful and complex novel of great importance in Canadian Literature. As a story of life during the depression, this book perfectly captures the trials of prairie life during this era. As Mrs. Bentley describes events in her journal entries, we are given a chance to not only accept the text at face value, but to read between the lines. Mrs. Bentley tends to say more by what she doesn't write than what she does. All in all, an incredible book and one which everyone should read.
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