- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Canada; 1st Printing edition (Aug 13 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385659148
- ISBN-13: 978-0385659147
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 11.7 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#32,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > Women Writers
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Product Details |
Product Description
Amazon.ca
If Hell is other people, 18-year-old Bridget Murphy has certainly been there. The hero of Lynn Coady's celebrated first novel, Strange Heaven, would like nothing more than to disengage from the world. But nobody--especially the folks back home in Cape Breton--will leave her alone.
The doctors think she's apathetic. After the traumatic birth of her infant son, they transfer her to the psych ward of the Halifax children's hospital. There she spends her days listening to the rants of a manic teenaged stripper and dodging the sexual advances of a pimply megalomaniac who thinks he's the next Jesus Christ. Discharged in time for Christmas, she returns home to the same domestic bedlam and boozy social life that got her into trouble in the first place. As if living with a foul-mouthed 100-year-old grandmother and a developmentally delayed uncle weren't challenging enough, Bridget also discovers that there's no escaping the people who think getting pregnant should have made her "properly penitent" or the high-school friends who can't understand that anything's changed--not to mention the verbally abusive boyfriend who wants to sue her for giving up their baby.
Coady gives this story of teenaged pregnancy a slyly comic treatment that mitigates the tragic aspects of Bridget's situation. It's impossible not to laugh at Bridget's grandmother spitting out her Christmas dinner because "it's full of the cancer" or a sex-starved wardmate "going for the taco" every time Bridget lets down her guard. While it shares limitations with other first novels (such as occasionally awkward writing), Strange Heaven marks an exciting debut for this Cape Breton-born writer--at its best, rivalling Roddy Doyle's black comedies of Dublin life. --Lisa Alward --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Books in Canada
A strong narrator appears in Lynn Coady's Strange Heaven in the form of Bridget Murphy. Bridget, almost eighteen, is hibernating in the psychiatric ward of a Halifax children's hospital after the birth of her baby, which she has given up for adoption and in whose father she has not the slightest interest. She likes the routine, the predictability of hospital life, so different from her chaotic, emotionally turbulent home environment in a small Cape Breton town. When her uncle insists that Bridget return home for the Christmas holidays, she is faced once again with family and friends, all of whom she finds trying; they require far too much energy.
Despite her seeming apathy, Bridget is a survivor with an appealing sense of black humour and a healthy disdain for convention. The voice in Strange Heaven is clear, resonant, and unmistakably true-certainly a notable accomplishment for any writer but perhaps even more so for one who, like Coady, is only twenty-eight. Eva Tihanyi(Books in Canada) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange Heaven,
By
This review is from: Strange Heaven (Paperback)
We received the book within days of ordering it. I was very happy with how quick it was as we needed the book in a short timeframe. As well the book was in what I considered new condition (as opposed to used, but in good condition). I would never have known that. I would purchase other items from this seller and was ++++ pleased with this purchase. Thanks
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Chaos,
By
This review is from: Strange Heaven (Paperback)
A great read--Lynn Coady's text is rich and scattered with many humorous moments. The characters are fascinating and awful at the same time. This text deploys a 'strategic regionalism', that is, it challenges essentialist notions of Atlantic Canada; The people you encounter in this story are not your 'jolly, complacent folk' but are confused, often psychotic but nonetheless lovable characters. Coady speaks not only to the monotony of adolescent lives--Bridget and her 'friends' search for some kind of meaning through self-discovery--but also to feminist and religious politics. Ideals of Catholicism are subverted in this book, as are notions of the innocent virginal woman. Female characters in this book experience their bodies as a locus of betrayal.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
5.0 out of 5 stars
An entertaining and insightful read, not to be missed,
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strange Heaven: Reader's Guide Edition (Paperback)
A single teen mother never comes without their baggage. "Strange Heaven" tells the story of Bridget Murphy, marauded by her fates and trying to find her place in life, she puts her unwanted child up for adoption and trying to come to terms with her strange and unusual family. Family isn't something you can't just leave behind, and Bridget slowly comes to term with it. With plenty of black humor, "Strange Heaven" is an entertaining and insightful read, not to be missed.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Chaos,
By Chantal Moore - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strange Heaven (Paperback)
A great read--Lynn Coady's text is rich and scattered with many humorous moments. The characters are fascinating and awful at the same time. This text deploys a 'strategic regionalism', that is, it challenges essentialist notions of Atlantic Canada; The people you encounter in this story are not your 'jolly, complacent folk' but are confused, often psychotic but nonetheless lovable characters. Coady speaks not only to the monotony of adolescent lives--Bridget and her 'friends' search for some kind of meaning through self-discovery--but also to feminist and religious politics. Ideals of Catholicism are subverted in this book, as are notions of the innocent virginal woman. Female characters in this book experience their bodies as a locus of betrayal.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No Mistake,
By "directblaze" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strange Heaven. (Paperback)
You are making no mistake if you read this book. Lynn Coady has a cutting sense of humour that will make you laugh and wonder if you should be. Her portrait of a tourmented young girl is both accurate and saddening.
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