- Paperback: 165 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction; 1st HarperPerennial Canada ed edition (Jan 27 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0006485359
- ISBN-13: 978-0006485353
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 91 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #487,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This graceful debut collection of eight connected stories offers multiple impressions of the fears and tyrannical responsibilities the past can impose on the present. The vicissitudes of a troubled blue-collar Vancouver family are narrated in sharply evocative prose by Adele Nordstrom, who chronicles a cycle of emotional neediness and despair. Like her step-siblings Ray, Irene and Joyce, Adele has been profoundly affected by her parents' failed marriage. Their mother June, a cocktail-lounge pianist, takes newspaper filler as sacred truth: "Who you sleep by determines your dreams," she announces at her son's birthday party. Adele, now a teacher in New York, still turns to June, who "wants her intuition and skill to rub off on her daughter somehow." Alcoholism, incest, promiscuous sex, madness, terminal illness and suicide are all aspects of this family's heritage. The novel ends on a tragic note, with Adele swamped by guilt, yet concluding that "a bad marriage is better than none." Svendsen has created knowable characters with familiar failings, and her quiet language has power and authenticity.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
A debut collection of eight linked stories more or less supports the notion that ``there are no happy marriages...only unexamined ones.'' And these tales of incest, suicide, cancer, alcoholism, divorce, and madness are as cheerful as a Bergman movie, with much of the same Protestant angst. Svendsen's bleak terrain is Vancouver, where her working-class family leads its life of gloomy desperation. The narrator, Adele Nordstrom, wanders through thirtysomething years of domestic memories, profiling her screwy half-siblings and step-relatives as well as her thrice-married mother, June, a lounge pianist who's determined never to be without a man. Along the way, Adele reveals herself to be smart and sharp-tongued and destined to leave the dull Northwest. After years of admiring her manly half-brother Ray, she realizes, in ``Who He Slept By,'' that he ``might be an asshole''--a shiftless drunk and womanizer. ``Flight'' concerns half-sister Joyce, a young married woman abandoned by her husband, who then sinks into depression and madness. A family holiday, ``Boxing Day,'' proves an unsurprising disaster, as tension mounts between Adele's mother and her younger husband, Robert. ``Heartbeat'' and the title story suggest the reasons for Adele's own failure at marriage--her insane jealousy, her passivity. By the time of ``Belgium,'' she's a divorced mother of two living in Brooklyn, who comes West when her other half-sister Irene, long considered the family's ``lone success'' in marital affairs, develops cancer in her early 40s. The truth of her domestic situation turns out to be the greatest horror of all. Despite the throbbing downbeat, Svendsen's slim volume is distinguished by sharp, economical prose and a voice we want to hear more from. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful, rich, human, touching., Sep 25 1998
By Melinda Fairfield "Vibrant Woman" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Marine Life (Hardcover)
Rarely are words so elegantly crafted by modernist writers. Unlike the original reviewer, I do not feel this novel is about desperation or the futility of marriage. It touches me on level more realistic than hopeless. More hopeful than hopeless. And I do not connote desperation with realism. Melancholy, yes. To be sure. Bittersweet, yes. Touching and insightful-with every sentence. I wish this author would write more. I treasure her words & reverently admire her artisanship. Most excellent!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent prose, poignant simplicity, Oct 1 1998
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Marine Life (Hardcover)
I've read and re-read "Marine Life" so many times I can no longer count. It is an excellent body of work, seamlessly woven together. The prose is outstanding in its' stunning simplicity. Linda Svendsen is an extremely talented writer and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.
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