More - Hardcover

Clarke, Austin

3.17

162 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0887623530 ISBN 13: 9780887623530

Publisher: Thomas Allen Pub, 2008

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Winner of the 2009 Toronto Book Award

From the winner of the 2002 Giller Prize comes Austin Clarke's much anticipated new novel, More. At the news of her son's involvement in gang crime, Idora Morrison collapses in her rented basement apartment. For four days and nights, she retreats into a vortex of memory, pain, and disappointment that unravels a riveting dissection of her life as a black immigrant to Toronto. Idora has lived in Canada for 25 years. She has struggled to make ends meet and her deadbeat husband Bertram has abandoned her for a better life in America. Left alone to raise her son BJ, Idora does her best to survive against very difficult odds. Now that BJ has disappeared into a life of crime and gang warfare, she recoils from this loss and tries to understand how her life has spiraled into this tragic place. In spite of her circumstances, Idora finds her way back into the light with a courage that is both remarkable and unforgettable.

Perhaps the most political of all of Austin Clarke's novels, More is a powerful indictment of the iniquities of racial discrimination and the crime of poverty. It is in many ways a companion volume to the award-winning The Polished Hoe. While his previous novel was a metaphorical history of slavery, More is an allegorical story about the complexities of race in modern western culture. More is an extraordinary story about oppression and redemption and hope. From one of our masters of the novel form, this is very much a book for our times.

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From the Back Cover:

At the news of her son BJ’s involvement in gang crime, IdoraMorrison, a maid at the local university, collapses in her basementapartment. For four days and nights she retreats into a vortex ofmemory, pain, and disappointment that becomes a riveting expos� of her life as a Caribbean immigrant living abroad. Abandoned by her deadbeat husband, Bertram, and left alone to raise her son, Idora has done her best to survive against immense odds. But now that BJ has disappeared into a life of crime, she recoils from his loss and is unable to get out of bed, burdened by feelings of invisibility. Slowly, however, Idora summons the strength to investigate her son’s troubles—and her own weaknesses—as she finds her way back into the light with a couragethat is both remarkable and unforgettable.

About the Author:

Culminating with the international success of The Polished Hoe in 2002, Austin Clarke’s work since 1964 includes ten novels, six short-story collections, and three memoirs published in the United States, England, Canada, Australia and Holland. In 1998, Clarke was invested with the Order of Canada, and has received four honorary doctorates. In 1999 he won the W.O. Mitchell Prize and the Martin Luther King Junior Award for Excellence in Writing. He lives in Toronto.

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