Mairuth Sarsfield. NO CRYSTAL STAIR. Moulin, 1997.
A gift from my cousin who knows I like to read CanLit and that I love Montreal. Old Montreal. Didn't realize that this had been a Canada Reads pick about 20 years ago. Ratings on Goodreads range from 2 to 5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the story of one woman's hard life. Marion Willow is a widow in her 30s trying to support her children and raise them well during 1940s Montreal. There are many provincial and world war references and many quotations from Black poetry, as well as references to liberty in pre-WWII Europe and pleasures of booze and jazz which brought American tourists to Canada. The subtleties of racism and the challenges of parenting in an openly anti Black and anti female society are made clear as are learning to recognize and to cope with ones own prejudices.
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