Saturday, April 19, 2025

The Glass Castle.


 Jeannette Walls. The Glass Castle. Scribner, 2005. 


A shattering memoir of growing up in a family with an "alternative" lifestyle, a father who is a dreamer who drinks and refuses to let employment interfere with his dreams. A mother who hides behind being an artist as an excuse not to be a protector and provider for her children. Terrible to see the invisible line between addiction/mental illness and freedom of choice, and the unimaginable life many children experience. Every teacher should read this story of a girl who survives and thrives in spite of the neglect she experienced. 


A Death Feast in Dimla-hamid

 Terry Glavin. A Death Feast in Dimla-hamid. New Star, 1990.

Have owned this for 30 years. Read it before attending the Dancers of Damelahamid performance at Cultural Centre. Book is much more enlightening although dance was beautiful & entertaining. Glavin mentions Mary Johnson 3 or 4 times. The Indigenous disrespect from government & corporations is mind-boggling.




Elemental

 Kate Braid. Elemental. Caitlin, 2018.


Reading an old friend. 

The Custodian of Paradise

 Wayne Johnston. The Custodian of Paradise. Vintage, 2006.



A book club selection. A sequel to Johnston's Colony of Unrequited Dreams, with Sheilagh Fielding as the main character. A Newfoundland girl raised by a distant doctor father after her mother abandoned her at age six. A rebellious teenager who gets pregnant from her first and only sexual experience. Gives the babies to be raised in New York by her mother and stepfather. Writes. Develops a friendship with Joey Smallwood who was unfairly blamed for the folly which resulted in Sheilagh's being expelled from school. She drinks and is mysteriously helped to get her supply by an unknown benefactor who eventually emerges as her "Provider". During WW II, in her 40s, Sheilagh exiles herself to an island attempting to quit drinking and grieve the death of one of her twins killed in the war.

The ending feels tacked on and confusing, making the Provider the actual "custodian of paradise" and the female lead merely a pawn in his game.

LUNA

 Sharon Butala. LUNA. Harper, 1988. Enjoyed reading this story of the lives of women in rural Saskatchewan at the end of the 20th century. A...