From Amazon
In A Jest of God, the second of Margaret Laurence's Manawaka novels, 34-year-old Rachel Cameron tries as hard as she can to live her life in the shadows. Suffocated by her overbearing mother, with whom she lives in the tiny flat above her late father's funeral parlour, Rachel buries herself in her job as an elementary school teacher and her dreams of escaping Manawaka and her mother. She longs for friendship and affection but is quick to reject any offers. When she gives in to her desires and has her first sexual experiences, she becomes terrified that she's become pregnant even though she also longs to have a child. When her supposed pregnancy turns out to be a benign tumour, Rachel decides she has to get out of Manawaka.
Laurence brilliantly conjures the stifling anxiety that envelops Rachel, and her fears of transgressing the social norm. A Jest of God, which won the 1966 Governor General's Award for fiction, is a provocative and profoundly moving novel about one woman's struggle to escape the strictures of small-town life and become self-reliant and self-confident, and to learn from, rather than be overwhelmed by, those random jests of God. --Jeffrey Canton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Fresh and arresting…unforgettably good and nothing less than brilliant.”
–Maclean’s
“Superb and movingly human.”
–Saturday Review
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
–Maclean’s
“Superb and movingly human.”
–Saturday Review
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
In this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness – her own and that of others – Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable.
A Jest of God won the Governor General’s Award for 1966 and was released as the successful film, Rachel, Rachel. The novel stands as a poignant and singularly enduring work by one of the world’s most distinguished authors.
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness – her own and that of others – Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable.
A Jest of God won the Governor General’s Award for 1966 and was released as the successful film, Rachel, Rachel. The novel stands as a poignant and singularly enduring work by one of the world’s most distinguished authors.
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From the Back Cover
“Fresh and arresting…unforgettably good and nothing less than brilliant.”
–Maclean’s
“Superb and movingly human.”
–Saturday Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
–Maclean’s
“Superb and movingly human.”
–Saturday Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Margaret Laurence was born in Neepawa, Manitoba, in 1926. Upon graduation from Winnipeg’s United College in 1947, she took a job as a reporter for the Winnipeg Citizen.
From 1950 until 1957 Laurence lived in Africa, the first two years in Somalia, the next five in Ghana, where her husband, a civil engineer, was working. She translated Somali poetry and prose during this time, and began her career as a fiction writer with stories set in Africa.
When Laurence returned to Canada in 1957, she settled in Vancouver, where she devoted herself to fiction with a Ghanaian setting: in her first novel, This Side Jordan, and in her first collection of short fiction, The Tomorrow-Tamer. Her two years in Somalia were the subject of her memoir, The Prophet’s Camel Bell.
Separating from her husband in 1962, Laurence moved to England, which became her home for a decade, the time she devoted to the creation of five books about the fictional town of Manawaka, patterned after her birthplace, and its people: The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, A Bird in the House, and The Diviners.
Laurence settled in Lakefield, Ontario, in 1974. She complemented her fiction with essays, book reviews, and four children’s books. Her many honours include two Governor General’s Awards for Fiction and more than a dozen honorary degrees.
Margaret Laurence died in Lakefield, Ontario in 1987. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From 1950 until 1957 Laurence lived in Africa, the first two years in Somalia, the next five in Ghana, where her husband, a civil engineer, was working. She translated Somali poetry and prose during this time, and began her career as a fiction writer with stories set in Africa.
When Laurence returned to Canada in 1957, she settled in Vancouver, where she devoted herself to fiction with a Ghanaian setting: in her first novel, This Side Jordan, and in her first collection of short fiction, The Tomorrow-Tamer. Her two years in Somalia were the subject of her memoir, The Prophet’s Camel Bell.
Separating from her husband in 1962, Laurence moved to England, which became her home for a decade, the time she devoted to the creation of five books about the fictional town of Manawaka, patterned after her birthplace, and its people: The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, A Bird in the House, and The Diviners.
Laurence settled in Lakefield, Ontario, in 1974. She complemented her fiction with essays, book reviews, and four children’s books. Her many honours include two Governor General’s Awards for Fiction and more than a dozen honorary degrees.
Margaret Laurence died in Lakefield, Ontario in 1987. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
