- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Cormorant Books Inc (Aug 30 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1897151306
- ISBN-13: 978-1897151303
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #383,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Quill & Quire
Ann Charney’s third novel begins in Montreal in 1952. Eight-year-old Ellen gazes through her bedroom window, awaiting the arrival of the refugees who will inhabit the empty rooms of her mother’s grandiose Mount Royal home. As she studies the frost that has formed on her window overnight, Ellen wonders whether the icy pattern constitutes a coded message: “My goal was to make life resemble the stories I had read in books, where one event inevitably led to another, and each page flowed effortlessly into the next.” From this first inkling of Ellen’s literary aspirations, Distantly Related to Freud traces the formative decade of the young girl’s life. Like Ellen’s mother, the refugees who take up residence in her home come from Central Europe, and represent for Ellen a way of understanding her family history. When they eventually move on, one of the few tangible links to her European ancestry that Ellen is left with is a portrait of Sigmund Freud, a distant relative. The refugees are eventually replaced by Ellen’s Aunt Celia, whose obsession with safety becomes a trial for her increasingly independent niece. Ellen’s mother maintains a close circle of émigré acquaintances, including Dr. Henryk Steiner, whose penchant for pleasure-seeking brings further unrest to the household when he becomes Ellen’s stepfather. Ellen takes refuge in her friendship with Lydia, whose background is similar to her own. A grisly incident during a trip to visit cousins in New York provides the fodder for Ellen’s initial literary endeavours. Distantly Related to Freud deals with immigrant experience, familial relations, and sexual and intellectual maturation. Charney’s narration is elegant and understated throughout. The narrative, however, resembles an episodic Victorian novel, with a meandering and occasionally sensationalistic plot. Characters emerge from the margins of Ellen’s life, only to recede and re-emerge once again. The reader comes to know Ellen intimately, but the novel’s other characters remain as distant and mysterious as her own family history is to her. At its best, the novel offers considerable insight into the increasingly complex mind of an ambitious young writer. Elsewhere, it is overly digressive, and the significance of its details is difficult to discern.
Book Description
It’s Montreal, 1953, and eight-year-old Ellen, an only child prone to daydreaming, and her mother, a woman who believes in the promise of fresh starts, have moved into a large house on the flanks of Mt. Royal. To make ends meet, Ellen’s mother takes in a group of refugees from Central Europe, whose erratic behaviour and dark view of human nature captivate the young girl’s imagination. Ellen sees the refugees as a potential source of valuable information about her own background, of which she has heard little, except for a few stories about a lost golden civilization and the family’s distant connection to Sigmund Freud. The refugees soon leave to be replaced by Aunt Celia, a woman whose anxiety meter is permanently stuck at danger, and Ellen’s new stepfather, Dr. Henryk Steiner, whose years in the Soviet Union have earned him the title of "Playboy of the Communist World".
While the adults wrangle with each other and the fallout from their past lives, Ellen sets her sights on exploring the brave new world of "America," and on becoming a teenage femme fatale. Her quest takes her to Crescent Bay, Long Island, and into the placid lives of her American cousins and their friends. Supporting her along the way is her best friend Lydia, a fellow rebel whose mother, Magda, sets off a series of events that will alter the course of the two girls’ lives.
While the adults wrangle with each other and the fallout from their past lives, Ellen sets her sights on exploring the brave new world of "America," and on becoming a teenage femme fatale. Her quest takes her to Crescent Bay, Long Island, and into the placid lives of her American cousins and their friends. Supporting her along the way is her best friend Lydia, a fellow rebel whose mother, Magda, sets off a series of events that will alter the course of the two girls’ lives.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant!,
By Annie (Toronto) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Distantly Related to Freud (Paperback)
Ellen is a delightful, imaginative girl with a quirky perspective on life that perfectly captures that age. I loved how her and her best friend were able to sympathize over the foibles of each other's families and team together to hatch their own plots for social domination--what resolve! When tragedy almost claims one of them, the girls handle the fright with dignity, putting the adults to shame. Adolescent crushes are seen as having the tenacity to develop into adult friendships--a lesson for all bewildered young girls everywhere. Beautiful and sensitive beyond description.
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