The Lists - Books for The Obsessive Reader

I am trying to streamline my life these days and have decided to move the lists from this blog to my main book blog. It is turning into quite a chore...but I am gradually making the change.

To see all lists and updates to those lists (along with links to my reviews of books I've read from the lists), please visit THIS PAGE on Caribousmom.

I will be keeping The Lists - Books for the Obsessive Reader blog up until I've transferred all the lists...but will eventually be deleting this site...shooting for the end of the year. I hope if you've enjoyed visiting me here, you'll subscribe to Caribousmom and follow me over there. I will be continually updating my lists there (which can be found from the main page by clicking on the tab Reading Journals at the top of the page).

Sligo made me and Sligo undid me, but then I should have given up much sooner than I did being made or undone by human towns, and looked to myself alone. The terror and hurt in my story happened because when I was young I thought others were the authors of my fortune or misfortune; I did not know that a person could hold up a wall made of imaginary bricks and mortar against the horrors and cruel, dark tricks of time that assail us, and be the author therefore of themselves. - from The Secret Scripture, page 3-4 -

Sebastian Barry’s fourth novel opens in an Irish mental hospital with the voice of Roseanne McNulty who, in the 100th year of her life, has decided to write her memoir and hide it beneath the floorboards of her room. As Roseanne revisits the past, the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital is being dismantled due to safety concerns. Roseanne’s psychiatrist Dr. Grene is attempting to evaluate the patients to determine if they can be set free, or must be re-committed in the new hospital. The story alternates between Roseanne’s memories of her past and Dr. Grene’s written thoughts in the present. As the novel progresses, the mystery of Roseanne’s life unfolds and Dr. Grene uncovers a secret in his own life.

Barry’s novel covers the period of the Irish Civil War (1922-23), as well as WWII and is steeped in the history of the Catholic Church and the politics of Ireland. There is a magical quality to the novel with rich and mysterious characters (including a priest who plays a large role in Roseanne’s life).

Early on, the reader becomes aware of discrepancies in Roseanne’s memories and part of the tension in the novel is one of separating the truth from fantasy. What is real and what is false?

For history as far as I can see is not the arrangement of what happens, in sequence and in truth, but a fabulous arrangement of surmises and guesses held up as a banner against the assault of withering truth. - from The Secret Scripture, page 55 -

But I am beginning to wonder strongly what is the nature of history. Is it only memory in decent sentences, and if so, how reliable is it? I would suggest, not very. And that therefore most truth and fact offered by these syntactical means is treacherous and unreliable. - from The Secret Scripture, page 293 -

Barry’s writing is simply gorgeous. Lyrical and descriptive, the reader can hear the lilt of the Irish voices and see the desolate countryside of Ireland.

Always the deluge of rain falling on Sligo, falling on the streets big and little, making the houses shiver and huddle like people at a football match. Falling fantastically, in enormous amounts, the contents of a hundred rivers. And the river itself, the Garravoge, swelling up, the beautiful swans taken by surprise, riding the torrent, being swept down under the bridge and reappearing the other side like unsuccessful suicides, their mysterious eyes shocked and black, their mysterious grace unassailed. How savage swans are even in their famous beauty. And the rain falling also on the pavements outside the Cafe Cairo, as I tugged at the boilers and the machines, and gazed out through the fuggy windows with burning eyes. - from The Secret Scripture, page 125 -

The Secret Scripture is a novel about love and betrayal, truth and fantasy, sin and redemption … an intimate look at the history and religious politics of Ireland as it collides with one woman’s life. Barry is the consummate story-teller, weaving his fantastical account beautifully and creating a truly memorable character for literary fiction lovers.

Highly recommended.

The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is awarded to the best work of literature (fiction, non fiction, poetry, drama) from Britain or the Commonwealth and written by an author age 35 or younger. To read more about this award go here.

2008

The Secret Life of Words, by Henry Hitchings - WINNER
Shortlist:
The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga
The Broken Word, by Adam Foulds
The Secret Life of Words, by Henry Hitchings
The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer
God’s Own Country, by Ross Raisin
Selling Your Father’s Bones, by Brian Schofield

2006/7

The Carhullan Army, by Sarah Hall - WINNER
Shortlist:
Blood Kin, by Ceridwen Dovey
Inglorious, by Joanna Kavenna
The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane
Joshua Spassky, by Gwendoline Riley
Occupational Hazards, by Rory Stewart

2005

Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala - WINNER (read my review)
Shortlist:
Tokyo Canceled, by Rana Dasgupta
The Short Day Dying, by Peter Hobbs
The State of the Prisons, by Sinead Morrissey
Newfoundland, by Rebecca Ray
Gem Squash Tokoloshe, by Rachel Zadok

2004

Boy A, by Jonathan Trigell - WINNER
Shortlist:
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Aidiche (read my review)
The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart
The Broken String, by Neil Bennun
Some Great Thing, by Colin McAdam
The Afterglow, by Anthony Cartwright

2003

Daughters of Jerusalem, by Charlotte Mendelson

2002

Virgins of Venice, by Mary Laven - WINNER
(Originally awarded to The Impressionist, by Hari Kunzru - was declined by the author due to its sponsorship by the Mail on Sunday)

2001

The Earthquake Bird, by Susanna Jones

2000

Leadville, by Edward Platt - WINNER
Shortlist:
The Hunter, by Julia Leigh
The Book of Love, by Roddy Lumsden
Pobby & Dingan, by ben Rice
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
Hungry for Home Leaving the Blaskets: A Journey from the Edge of Ireland, by Cole Moreton

1999

Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell (read my review)

1998

The Ugliest House in the World, by Peter Ho Davies

1997

Eclipse of the Sun, by Phil Whitaker

1996

Heading Inland, by Nicola Barker

1995

Motel Nirvana, by Melanie McGrath

1994

What A Carve up! by Jonathan Coe

1993

On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul, by Jason Goodwin

1992

Sweet Thames, by Matthew Kneale

1991

Night Geometry and the Garscadden trains, by A.L. Kennedy

1990

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, by Ray Monk

1989

Sylvia Townsed Warner, by Claire Harman

1988

The March Fence, by Matthew Yorke

1987

The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson

1986

Loving Roger, by Tim Parks

1985

Out of the Blue, by John Milne

1984

Dangerous Play, by Andrew Motion

1983

The Slow Train toMilan, by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

1982

An Ice-Cream War, by William Boyd

1981

The Laird of Abbotsford, by A.N. Wilson

1980

The Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea, by Desmond hogan

1979

The Shining Mountain, by Peter Boardman

1978

The Sweets of Pimlico, by A.N. Wilson

1977

Vorticism & Abstract Art in the First Machine, by Richard Cork

1976

NO AWARD

1975

Cushing's Crusade, by Tim Jeal - WINNER
Knuckle, by David Hare - WINNER

1974

The Girl Who Passed for Normal, by Hugh Fleetwood

1973

A Warm Gun, by Peter Smalley

1972

The Albatross, by Susan Hill

1971

Fireflies, by Shiva Naipaul

1970

The People's War, by Angus Calder

1969

Without a City Wall, by Melvyn Bragg

1968

The Magic Toyshop, by Angela Carter

1967

The Seahorse, by Anthony Masters

1966

The Millstone, by Margaret Drabble

1965

The White Father, by Julian Mitchell

1964

Up the Junction, by Nell Dunn

1963

Two Lives, by Peter Marshall

1962

An Introduction to the House of Commons, by Robert Rhodes James - WINNER
A Tropical Childhood and Other Poems, by Edward Lucie-Smith - WINNER

1961

Flight Into Camden, by David Storey

1960

At Fever Pitch, by David Caute

1959

A Long Way from London, by Dan Jacobson

1958

The Mystic Masseur, by V.S. Naipaul

1957

The Room on the Roof, by Ruskin Bond

1956

Voices Under the Window, by John Hearne

1955

The Moon to Play With, by Jon Wiles

1954

The Hostile Sun, by Tom Stacey

1953

The Return Home, by Rachel Trickett

1952

NO AWARD

1951

The Beautiful Visit, by Elizabeth Jan Howard

1950

Adventure lit Their star, by Kenneth Allsop

1949

Maiden's Trip, by Emma Smith

1948

The Wind Cannot Read, by Richard Mason

1947

Moondrop to Gascony, by Anne-Marie Wlaters

1946

My Bird Sings, by Oriel Malet

1945

The Sea Eagle, by James Aldridge

1944

The Last Inspection, by Alun Lewis

1943

Beauty for Ashes, by Morwenna Donelly

1942

Sunk by a Mine, by Michael Richey

2008

The Origin of Species, by Nino Ricci - WINNER
Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen
Cockroach, by Rawi Hage
The Last Highway, by David Adams Richards
The Great Karoo, by Fred Stenson

2007

Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatje - WINNER
Soucouyant, by David Chariandy
Helpless, by Barbara Gowdy
Lullabies for Little Criminals, by Heather O'Neill
The Assassin's Song, by M.G. Vassanji

2006

The Law of Dreams, by Peter Behrens - WINNER
The Fearsome Particles, by Trevor Cole
Gargoyles, by Bill Gaston
The Dodecahedron (Frame of Frames), by Paul Glennon
De Niro's Game, by Rawi Hage

2005

A Perfect Night to Go to China, by David Gilmour - WINNER
Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden
Nellcott Is My Darling, by Golda Fried
Alphabet, by Kathy Page

2004

A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews - WINNER
Natasha and Other Stories, by David Bezmozgis
Norman Bray, In the Performance of His Life, by Trevor Cole
Some Great Thing, by Colin McAdam
Runaway, by Alice Monroe

2003

Elle, by Douglas Glover - WINNER
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
Garbo Laughs, by Elizabeth Hay
Private View, by Jean McNeil
Ten Thousand Lovers, by Edeet Ravel

2002

A Song for Nettie Johnson, by Gloria Sawai - WINNER
The Case of Lena S., by David Bergen
Exile, by Ann Ireland
The Navigator of New York, by Wayne Johnston
Unless, by Carol Shields

2001

Clara Callan, by Richard B. Wright - WINNER
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (read my review)
Dragons Cry, by Tessa McWatt
The Stone Carvers, by Jane Urquhart
Salamander, by Thomas Wharton

2000

Anil's Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje - WINNER
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood (read my review here)
The Question, by Austin Clarke
Mercy Among The Children, by David Adams Richards
Monkey Beach, by Eden Robinson

1999

Elizabeth and After, by Matt Cohen - WINNER
The Worlds Within Her, by Neil Bissoondath
Pool-hopping And Other Stories, by Anne Fleming
Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby?, by Elyse Gasco
Gloria, by Keith Maillard

1998

Forms of Devotion, by Diane Schoemperlen - WINNER
Strange Heaven, by Lynn Coady
The White Bone, by Barbara Gowdy
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Wayne Johnston
The Electrical Field, by Kerri Sakamoto

1997

The Underpainter, by Jane Urquhart - WINNER
The Two-Headed Calf, by Sandra Birdsell
Last Seen, by Matt Cohen
Small Change, by Elizabeth Hay
First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, by Eric McCormack

1996

The Englishman's Boy, by Guy Vanderhaeghe - WINNER
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood (read my review here)
Let Me Be The One, by Elizabeth Harvor
The Green Library, by Janice Kulyk Keefer
Teaching Pigs To Sing, by Cordelia Strube
Coming Down From Wa, by Audrey Thomas

1995

The Roaring Girl, by Greg Hollingshead - WINNER
Highways and Dancehalls, by Diana Atkinson
Mister Sandman, by Barbara Gowdy
The Jaguar Temple, by Julie Keith
The Age of Longing, by Richard B. Wright

1994

A Discovery of Strangers, by Rudy Wiebe - WINNER
The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood (read my review)
Division of Surgery, by Donna McFarlane
Open Secrets, by Alice Monroe
How Insensitive, by Russell Smith

1993

The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields - WINNER
Bad Imaginings, by Caroline Adderson
Green Grass, Running Water, by Thomas King
For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down, by David Adams Richards
Visible Light, by Carol Windley

1992

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje - WINNER
The Chrome Suite, by Sandra Birdsell
The Bonus Deal, by Archie Crail
The Afterlife of George Cartwright, by John Steffler
Deep Hollow Creek, by Sheila Watson

1991

Such a Long Journey, by Rohinton Mistry - WINNER
Wilderness Tips, by Margaret Atwood
Blue Husbands, by Don Dickinson
A Guide to Animal Behavior, by Douglas Glover
Quickening, by Terry Griggs

1990

Lives of the Saints, by Nino Ricci - WINNER
Disappearing Moon Cafe, by Sky Lee
Friend of my Youth, by Alice Monro
On Double Tracks, by Leslie Hall Pinder
Man of My Dreams, by Diane Schoemperlen

1989

Whale Music, by Paul Quarrington - WINNER
The Golden Thread, by Ann Copeland
A View From the Roof, by Helen Weinzweig

1988

Nights Below Station Street, by David Adams Richards - WINNER
Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood (read my review here)
The Victory of Geraldine Gull, Joan Clark
Atmospheres Apollonaire, by Mark Frutkin
The Cost of Living, Kenneth Radu

1987

A Dream Like Mine, by M. T. Kelly - WINNER
The Ring Master, by David Gurr
Tales From Firozsha Baag, by Rohinton Mistry
In the Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje
Swann: A Mystery, by Carol Shields

1986

The Progress of Love, by Alice Munro - WINNER
A Stone Watermelon, by Lois Braun
Adult Entertainment, by John Metcalf
No Fixed Address, by Aritha van Herk

1985

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood - WINNER (read my review here)
Queen of the Headaches, by Sharon Butala
Foreign Affairs, by Keath Fraser
Road to the Stilt House, by David Adams Richards

1984

The Engineer of Human Souls, by Josef Skvorecky- WINNER
Not Wanted on the Voyage, by Timothy Findley
The Book of Fears, by Susan Kerslake
Intertidal Life, by Audrey Thomas

1983

Shakespeare's Dog, by Leon Rooke - WINNER
People Like Us In A Place Like This, by Philip Kreiner
Painted Ladies, by H.R. Percy
The Biggest Modern Woman of the World, by Susan Swan

1982

Man Descending, by Guy Vanderhaege - WINNER
The Moons of Jupiter, by Alice Monro
Antichthon, by Chris Scott

1981

Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories, by Mavis Gallant

1980

Burning Water, by George Bowering - WINNER
The Charcoal Burners, by Susan Musgrave
Fat Woman, by Leon Rooke

1979

The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne, by Jack Hodgins - WINNER
Life Before Man, by Margaret Atwood
The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone, by Matt Cohen

1978

Who Do you Think You Are? by Alice Munro - WINNER

1977

The Wars, by Timothy Findley - WINNER

1976

Bear, by Marian Engel - WINNER

1975

The Great Victorian Collection, by Brian Moore - WINNER

1974

The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence - WINNER

1973

The Temptations of Big Bear, by Rudy Wiebe - WINNER

1972

The Manticore, by Robertson Davies - WINNER

1971

St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler - WINNER

1970

The New Ancestors, by Dave Godfrey - WINNER

1969

The Studhorse Man, by Robert Kroetsch - WINNER

1968

Dance of the Happy Shades, by Alice Munro - WINNER

1967

No fiction award.

1966

A Jest of God, by Margaret Laurence - WINNER

1965

No fiction award.

1964

The Deserter, by Douglas LePan - WINNER

1963

Hugh Garner's Best Stories, by Hugh Garner - WINNER

1962

Running to Paradise, by Kildare Dobbs - WINNER

1961

Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, by Malcolm Lowry - WINNER

1960

The Luck of Ginger Coffey, by Brian Moore - WINNER

1959

The Watch that Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan - WINNER

1958

Execution, by Colin McDougall - WINNER

1957

Street of Riches (trans.), by Gabrielle Roy - WINNER

1956

The Sacrifice, by Adele Wiseman - WINNER

1955

The Sixth of June, by Lionel Shapiro - WINNER

1954

The Fall of a Titan, by Igor Gouzenko - WINNER

1953

Digby, by David Walker - WINNER

1952

The Pillar, by David Walker - WINNER

1951

The Loved and the Lost, by Morley Callaghan - WINNER

1950

The Outlander (trans.), by Germaine Guèvremont - WINNER

1949

Mr. Ames Against Time, by Philip Child - WINNER

1948

The Precipice, by Hugh MacLennan - WINNER

1947

The Tin Flute (trans.), by Gabrielle Roy - WINNER

1946

Continental Revue, by Winifred Bambrick - WINNER

1945

Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan - WINNER

1944

Earth and High Heaven, by Gwethalyn Graham - WINNER

1943

The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek, by Thomas H. Raddall - WINNER

1942

Little Man, by G. Herbert Sallans - WINNER

1941

Three Came to Ville Marie, by Alan Sullivan - WINNER

1940

Thirty Acres (translation), by Ringuet (pseud.) - WINNER

1939

The Champlain Road, by Franklin D. McDowell - WINNER

1938

Swiss Sonata, by Gwethalyn Graham - WINNER

1937

The Dark Weaver, by Laura G. Salverson - WINNER

1936

Think of The Earth, by Bertram Brooker - WINNER

It’s a bright clear day, unseasonably warm. It’s a Tuesday. The Soviet bloc is crumbling, the old maps are dissolving, the Eastern tribes are on the move again across the shifting borders. There’s trouble in the Gulf, the real estate market is crashing, and a large hole has developed in the ozone layer. The sun moves into Scorpio, Tony has lunch at the Toxique with her two friends Roz and Charis, a slight breeze blows in over Lake Ontario, and Zenia returns from the dead. -from The Robber Bride, page 4-

Margaret Atwood’s writing is at its finest in The Robber Bride - a novel about three middle-aged women friends who first meet as college students. Their friendship is strengthened through encounters with Zenia, a cunning and beautiful woman with a penchant for enchanting men and wreaking havoc on their lives and the lives of their significant others. The story opens in the Toxique (conjuring up the words toxic, intoxicating, and toxin), an unusual restaurant in Toronto where Charis, Tony, and Roz are meeting for lunch. It is many years after their college experiences and a few years past Zenia’s funeral…although Zenia is always there in spirit - in the atmosphere and their unspoken words, and lurking in their shared history. So, when the physical, living Zenia (more beautiful then ever and with enhanced breasts and skin) walks into the Toxique, no one is entirely surprised.

Atwood spins her tale from the present, back to the past, and returns to the present - revealing the rich and complex inner lives of her characters and weaving together a story about truth, lies, and the paradox of good and evil existing at the same time and within a single person. A major theme of the novel is the idea of duality. Atwood writes about Tony:

She looks like a very young old person, or a very old young person; but then, she’s looked that way ever since she was two. -from The Robber Bride, page 19-

Tony Fremont is obsessed with history - specifically with war - and views the world both forwards and backwards. Abandoned by her mother, and somewhat of a loner throughout her childhood and into her young adult years, Tony creates an alter ego: Tonmerf Ynot (her name backwards) who is powerful and courageous.

She is not just Tony Fremont, she is also Tnomerf Ynot, queen of the barbarians, and, in theory, capable of much that Tony herself is not quite up to. -From The Robber Bride, page 447-

Charis believes in spirits and possesses the gift to heal and see into the future. But as a child named Karen, Charis was filled with rage fueled by an abusive upbringing. These dual parts of her personality create conflict for Charis, but also define who she has become.

Roz, a wealthy business woman, is both Catholic and Jewish - two conflicting religions she is unable to reconcile. Her twin daughters are a physical embodiment of the duality in Roz’s life .

And finally there is Zenia - a woman whose past is elusive. She is outwardly beautiful and charming, adept at uncovering exactly what everyone needs. But what lies beneath her exterior charm is a woman of contradictions and mystery. Zenia is almost a mystical creature, one to be admired and feared.

Tony was the first one of them to befriend Zenia; or rather, Tony was the first one to let her in, because people like Zenia can never step through your doorway, can never enter and entangle themselves in your life, unless you invite them. -from The Robber Bride, page 127-

The story of Zenia is insubstantial, ownerless, a rumour only, drifting from mouth to mouth and changing as it goes. As with any magician, you saw what she wanted you to see; or else you saw what you yourself wanted to see. She did it with mirrors. The mirror was whoever was watching, but there was nothing behind the two-dimensional image but a thin layer of mercury. -from The Robber Bride, page 509-

Atwood weaves the lives of these woman together brilliantly. The concept of history is a major theme - both the history of these woman, as well as the history of the world. History is a combination of facts and interpretations; of good and evil; of truth and lies.

We can’t really run it backwards and end up at a clean start. Too many of the pieces have gone missing; also we know too much, we know the outcome. Historians are the quintessential voyeurs, noses pressed to Time’s glass window. They can never actually be there on the battlefield, they can never join in those moments of supreme exaltation, or of supreme grief either. Their re-creations are at the best just patchy waxworks. -from The Robber Bride, page 121-

Atwood’s language in this book is rich and gorgeously constructed, baring the souls of her characters while weaving a compelling mystery. Disturbing and dark at times, The Robber Bride evokes what is essentially human about all of us, including those emotions we are most likely to conceal. When Atwood shows us Zenia’s character, we cannot look away:

Zenia is full of secrets. She laughs, she throws her secrets casually this way and that, her teeth flashing white; she pulls more secrets out of her sleeves and unfurls them from behind her back, she unrolls them like bolts of rare cloth, displaying them, whirling them like gypsy scarves, flourishing them like banners, heaping them one on top of another in a glittering, prodigal tangle. -from The Robber Bride, page 179-

The Robber Bride is the 6th Atwood book I have read - and it is by far my favorite of hers to date. Readers who sink into this amazing book will not soon forget its strong female characters and dark edges.

Highly recommended.

A child dies in this book: a baby. A baby is stillborn. You don’t have to tell me how sad that is: it happened to me and my husband, our baby, a son. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 6-

Author Elizabeth McCracken lived briefly in France, with her husband, in her early thirties. It is there she conceives her first child - a son named Pudding - and begins to dream of his life and how it will enrich her life. And then the unthinkable happens. In her ninth month of pregnancy, the child she and her husband have been anticipating dies. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination is the story of loss and how one woman moved through it.

Elizabeth McCracken has written a stunning memoir from the heart - a love letter of sorts to her first son and her husband. Her writing is never maudlin, yet is profoundly moving - and despite the bleak subject matter, it even manages to be funny at times. But it is McCracken’s honesty which makes the memoir powerful. She never pads the emotions or avoids the uncomfortable - instead she takes the reader through one of the most devastating years of her life with candor and grace. Lest the reader shy away from the book because a baby dies, it would be remiss of me not to mention that a child is also born and lives in this book…an event that is at the same time joyous, healing and bittersweet.

I will admit that this book hit me like a sledgehammer. It sent me reeling. I felt blindsided by the intense emotions it stirred up for me…because I lost a child too. No, I have never been pregnant. My loss arrived through infertility. And McCracken’s prose resonated with me. She writes about other women’s pregnancies after her unbearable loss:

Still, I wouldn’t have minded a pause in the whole business. A sudden harmless moratorium on babies being born. Doctors would have to tell the unfortunate pregnant, “I’m sorry. It happens sometimes. Tidal, we think. For everyone else, nine months, but for you, eleven months, maybe a year, maybe more. Don’t go outside. Don’t leave your house. Stroke your stomach, fine, but only in your own living room. Keep your lullabies to yourself. We’ll let you know when it’s time.” -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 43-

AND

No, I insist: other people’s children did not make me sad. But pregnant women did. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 111-

She writes of that horribly destructive behavior called Blame which threatens to stand in the way of moving forward through grief:

Blame is a compulsive behavior, the emotional version of obsessive hand washing, until all you can do is hold your palms out till your hands are full of it, and rub, and rub, and accomplish nothing at all. And so we grieved but looked straight ahead. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 143-

I found myself nodding in agreement when McCracken spoke of the pain of answering those innocent questions about children posed by unsuspecting strangers. She wishes for a stack of cards she can hand out which say ‘My first child was stillborn‘ whenever a person coos over her second son and asks, “Is this your first?” How I wish I had a similar stack of cards reading “I am infertile” for every time someone asks if I have children.

McCracken writes:

I want people to know but I don’t want to say it aloud. people don’t like to hear it but I think they might not mind reading it on a card. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 73-

Yes. I agree.

McCracken’s great gift is that she reveals to her reader her deepest sadness, and her greatest hope. And in the end, she leaves us with a message which can sustain those who have experienced intolerable loss:

It’s a happy life, but someone is missing. It’s a happy life, and someone is missing. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 184-

This memoir is highly recommended, but with a cautionary note. I believed I had accepted my childlessness until I began reading McCracken’s words. I found myself closing the book often to weep, and yet I kept going back to read again. For women who have either lost a child or have never been able to conceive, this is a difficult book to read - but, it is also a hopeful book and one which reminds us we are not alone in our grief.

They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. -From On Chesil Beach, page 3-

Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach is the story of two people - Edward and Florence - who marry in 1962, on the cusp of the sexual revolution. They come from starkly different pasts. Edward is the son of a poor farmer, while Florence comes from a wealthy background. Florence is a gifted musician who loves classical music, and although Edward loves to watch Florence play the violin, his musical interests lie in rock and roll. But it is not only their pasts and interests which diverge in this slim novel, but their expectations of intimacy. Early on the reader feels a sense of unease about Florence, that there is a secret she clasps close to her heart while emotionally isolating herself from others.

All these years she had lived in isolation within herself and, strangely, from herself, never wanting or daring to look back. In the stone-floored echoing hall with the heavy low beams, her problems with Edward were already present in those first few seconds, in their first exchange of looks. -From On Chesil Beach, page 76-

On Chesil Beach takes place mostly on the eve of Edward and Florence’s wedding where the expectations around consummating the marriage create the tension in the novel. Each character brings with them a past which shapes the present…and ultimately their future.

McEwan is a precise writer who has sharpened his prose to a fine point in this stunning book about intimacy and empathy. Inaction can be more tragic than action - and On Chesil Beach demonstrates this idea vividly. McEwan is brilliant in the development of his characters - compressing their lives and drawing their motivations toward one moment in time which becomes irretrievable. The writing is absorbing and riveting and no word is wasted.

Many readers may find the subject matter uncomfortable, which I believe was McEwan’s intent. But those readers who overcome their discomfort will uncover a gem of a book which is sharply observed and compassionate.

On Chesil Beach was short listed for the Booker Prize in 2007.

Highly recommended.