- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: Emblem Editions; 1 edition (Mar 18 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771006675
- ISBN-13: 978-0771006678
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#295,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #33 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > African Canadian
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Childhood, André Alexis's brilliant first novel, is driven by Thomas MacMillan's orderly, almost leisurely desire to piece together the strange and unspoken facts of his "singular childhood." Abandoned at birth to the erratic care of his grandmother, he is reclaimed at age 10, with little fanfare, by his mother and mentored in adolescence by her boyfriend, the eccentric and learned Henry Wing. Once grown into an equally eccentric and learned young man himself, Thomas cultivates a hunger for the things he wasn't told as a child. As he writes of the mystery of his unpredictable but not unloving mother, "ignorance has brought the only lasting passion I've known…. I might have loved my mother less if I'd known her better."
This Childhood departs from the usual model of grudgeful parental exposés by being neither bitter nor particularly therapeutic about its narrator's often indifferent upbringing. "For a frightened child," Thomas notes, "I was self-possessed," and he still is. He retains a kind of clinical distance from the events of his life, recounting them with a prim and beautifully exact language that deserves the inevitable comparisons to Nabokov and Proust. This precision comes across as anything but cold and unfeeling, however. Instead, the exactitude with which Thomas inventories the things and the people he has lost gives his story a clear-eyed bittersweetness that makes Childhood, which won the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1998, a remarkable and singular book. --Tom Nissley
From Publishers Weekly
The love affair between a young black boy's wayward mother and a man who may or may not be his father forms the intriguing background to this enormously appealing first novel by Trinidadian-Canadian author Alexis (whose short-story collection, Despair, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize). "I've been thinking about Love, you see," begins the first-person narrator, now in his early 40s, addressing his absent, unnamed inamorata shortly after the death of his mother, "and theirs was the first and most puzzling romance I witnessed." Katarina MacMillan, only 17 when her son is born, promptly deposits Thomas in the care of her forbidding mother, Edna, in their small hometown of Petrolia, Ontario. Edna "was past the age of easy tolerance, and she was cantankerous," Thomas observes. "Also, she used to drink a lot of dandelion wine." Under her stern tutelage, Thomas grows up to be a book-loving, secretive boy. When his grandmother dies, the mother he knows only through legend suddenly arrives to claim him, and they are both soon abandoned roadside by Katarina's lover, the French-speaking Mr. Mataf. They must make a new life in Ottawa under the protection of a courtly dabbler in chemistry, Henry Wing, who initiates the boy into the secrets of alchemy. Thomas also learns about love and life by watching the games of power and romance that take place between Wing and his mother. Alexis often employs the apparatus of scientific research in order to convey Thomas's earnest searches for the truth; he breaks down memories into outlines, bulleted lists and footnotes, preferring the forms of proof to those of guesswork. The novel is an engagingly honest effort to order the stuff of a life, and it marks the maturation of an impressive new voice. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sparse and poignant,
This review is from: Childhood (Paperback)
Childhood by Andre Alexis McClelland & Stewart Inc. 1998The story follows the life of Thomas MacMillan from early childhood until the death of his mother, Katerina, and Henry Wing, one of his mother's lovers. The main characters are superbly drawn while Thomas remains for us only a wispy image generated by his thoughts. The love of Henry for Katerina is constant, undemanding and rises above the everyday demands of mere mortals. Katerina, on the other hand moves by her own light and one is never sure if she is capable of loving and one wonders too what has caused this strange disconnectedness. There are wryly funny sections and clear bright narrative bits that draw the reader in. At the end one realizes that the story is touchingly sentimental while being questioningly honest. I liked the book but had a strange unsatisfied feeling when I was finished. I wanted to know more of Henry, Katerina and Thomas.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The narrative exists, but subtley.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Childhood: A novel (Hardcover)
Alexis presents a well crafted novel that meanders between the past and the present, the truth and illusion. His use of the French language, poetry and allusion is skilled, though at times intimidating. Overall, the honesty and maturity of the novel made for a very delightful, if too short, read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adelightful first novel that weaves the past a present toget,
By A Customer
This review is from: Childhood: A novel (Hardcover)
I found this a very clever book , that weaves the past and present together . The remmbrance of an unusual childhood and how we come to perceive the world through many experienes, is revealed through snpshots of his life. I loved the use of poetry and almost magical quality the writer imparts to his rembering his childhood as an older person.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
