Fall on Your Knees (Paperback)

Fall on Your Knees tells the story of several generations of the Piper family of Cape Breton, beginning with the marriage of James Piper, the controlling, emotionally stunted son of Gaelic-speaking Scottish Canadians, and Materia Mahmoud, the 13-year-old daughter of wealthy Lebanese immigrants. Materia's father cuts her off from her family for marrying James, and James in turn forces her to deny both her heritage and her emotions. James, out of a spite even he fails to comprehend, focuses all his attention on Kathleen, his first-born and a musical prodigy. He dotes on her and sends her away to study opera in New York. However, Kathleen's unexpected return from New York, where she has made some discoveries that will ultimately turn her father against her, becomes the centre of an intricately plotted series of tragedies involving each of the Piper sisters. In a startlingly skilful manipulation of prose, MacDonald teases out clues, secrets, and revelations that are both delightful to discover and disturbing to consider. --Jonathan Dewar

The Pipers are a dark but spellbinding clan. James, the ambitious patriarch, begins as a piano tuner but ends up wealthy through bootlegging. He marries the thirteen-year-old Materia Mahmoud when he is eighteen; her Lebanese family disowns her. Four daughters complete the immediate family picture. Kathleen, the aspiring opera diva, whose death at nineteen plays a pivotal role in the family drama, is beautiful and talented-Daddy's favourite. Frances, who learns early that "one thing can look like another" and that "the facts of a situation don't necessarily indicate the truth of a situation," assumes the role of the rebellious bad girl intent on exhuming the family's secrets. Mercedes, a year older than Frances, takes on the responsibility of ensuring that the family survives. She serves, nurtures, and protects, turns to Catholicism for solace. And finally, there is Lily, the youngest, an invalid beloved by all, who must in the end come to terms with the family tree, its buried roots, its startling branches.

There is much I could say about what happens in the novel, but that would be a great disservice to MacDonald's expert plotting. She keeps you reading, not with gimmicks but with gripping, unforgettable characters so archetypally resonant, so realistically evoked, that they live themselves right off the page. The ending-though unexpected-is perfectly fitting and entirely appropriate. MacDonald has succeeded in delivering a surprise that really isn't one-no small feat. Eva Tihanyi(Books in Canada) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.