Gowdy’s “delightfully quirky novel”(New York Times Book Review) about an oddball Toronto family is “so brilliantly crafted and flat-out fun to read that she makes sinners of us all” (Washington Post Book World). A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
This riotous account of "the family unit" was a smash hit in Europe, Canada, and England. In the Times Literary Supplement, author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale) praised Barbara Gowdy's novel as surprising and delightful, containing moments "at the same time preposterous and strangely moving." The Canary family guards many secrets, including the mystery of tiny daughter, Joan, who was dropped on her head at birth and has never spoken. Joan plays the piano like Mozart, yet has never had a lesson. The outrageous hilarity rises into a climax that creates a stunning new definition of family togetherness.
Barbara Gowdy CM (born 25 June 1950) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Born in Windsor, Ontario, she is the long-time partner of poet Christopher Dewdney and resides in Toronto.
Gowdy's novel Falling Angels (1989) was made into a film by director Scott Smith, from an adaptation written by Esta Spalding, in 2002. The novel focuses on a nuclear family in a 1960s Ontario suburb. The main characters are three sisters who come of age in a house run by their abusive and womanizing father and must constantly find ways to take care of their depressed and alcoholic mother. Gowdy says her inspiration for the book was the idea of a Canadian family living during the Cold War and practicing using their bomb shelter in the back yard. In the novel and movie, the family spend two weeks trapped in the bomb shelter as an "exercise" rather than going on a family trip to Disneyland.
Authors such as Alice Munro and Carol Shields look at the everyday, but the bulk of Gowdy's work reflects upon the opposite. Gowdy's stories look at the extreme, the strange and the abnormal, but she is able to make her characters relatable and poignant. She often uses magic realism as a writing style, combining the fantastic or unusual with realistic and believable descriptions, placing her within the tradition of Southern Ontario Gothic.
The narrator and main character of the title short story of her 1992 collection, We So Seldom Look On Love, for instance, is an assistant embalmer at a funeral home who makes love to the bodies of attractive young men before they are buried. The story was the inspiration for the 1996 Canadian independent film Kissed, directed by Lynne Stopkewich and starring Molly Parker. The story is based on Frank O'Hara's poem "Ode to Necrophilia", and was inspired by a newspaper article Gowdy read about a young California woman who hijacked a hearse on its way to a funeral, took the corpse of the young man inside the coffin to a motel room and made love to it for several days before being caught by the police. We So Seldom Look On Love is meant as a compilation of circus-type characters and their quest to find connection with others. Another story features a two-headed man who removes one of his heads. A third story in that collection, "93 Million Miles Away" involves a woman who masturbates and exposes herself through the window of her apartment to a man in his apartment across the street. This story was made into the film Arousal.
Similarly, her novel Mister Sandman revolves around the family of Joan, a young autistic girl with a savant talent for playing classical music on the piano, and her novel The White Bone is written from the perspective of an elephant.
Yet her work is not about the shock value, but finding what is universal in us, as readers, to each of her characters.
Gowdy was nominated for a Governor General's Award for her novels Mister Sandman (1995), White Bone (1998), and Helpless (2007). White Bone was also nominated for the Giller Prize. The Romantic (2003), a best-seller in Canada, was nominated for several awards, including the Man Booker Prize. It was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. "Helpless" (2007) won the Trillium Award.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 3.75
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 3.25
Within U.S.A.
Seller: HPB-Emerald, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_399903867
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: HPB-Diamond, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_301981272
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.65. Seller Inventory # G0156005778I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Columbia Books, ABAA/ILAB, MWABA, Columbia, MO, U.S.A.
1998 Gowdy, Barbara MISTER SANDMAN NY: Harcourt and Brace, 1998 First Harvest edition 268pp 8vo Fine trade paperback. Seller Inventory # 50597
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Montclair Book Center, Montclair, NJ, U.S.A.
Trade Paperback. Condition: USED Good. Seller Inventory # 50630
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: The Haunted Bookshop, LLC, Iowa City, IA, U.S.A.
Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Seller Inventory # 035627
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: HPB-Ruby, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_413062373
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Bearly Read Books, Sudbury, MA, U.S.A.
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. corners bumped. Seller Inventory # 006257
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 16-0156005778-G
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 50-0156005778-G
Quantity: 1 available