Joy, Joy, Why Do I Sing? - Softcover

Madott, Darlene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889614407 ISBN 13: 9780889614406

Publisher: Womens Pr, 2004

Synopsis

In this brilliant collection of short stories, Darlene Madott explores the individual quests of characters to sing themselves out of the void--to seek a motivation beyond the confines of their personal joys and sufferings. In the title story, the uniqueness is in the exploration of the notion that in the gift of singing, we pray twice: we celebrate the song, and we celebrate the creator. Madott's stories examine the relationships between people, within the understanding that one note in isolation means nothing; it communicates nothing. It is the interval--the relationship between two notes and how an individual moves from one to the other--that creates meaning. Sometimes there is consonance, but more often, it is dissonance that swirls between two people. The author describes this dissonance in one marriage as "the interval of a seventh apart." All of the stories possess a certain tugging at the heart, and at the core of each story it is love alone that transposes the music.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This collection poses the important questions—about love, about the choices that irrevocably change lives.... I like the way the stories examine all these questions askance—not directly, but circling them in a very delicate way.... They are haunting meditations by a fine artist blessed with a scrupulous intelligence. Savour them." —Guy Vanderhaeghe

"To do justice to this collection, one should read it again and again, the way one plays a favourite song—over and over—never tiring of its melody, always excited and aroused by it.... I am awe-struck at the masterful writing.... This is a classic.... [Madott] makes us laugh and cry, think and speculate, dive deep below what sometimes look like shallow lives to discover that what we see and know is a light film that just barely manages to hold in place the complexity of humanity." —Marisa De Franceschi

About the Author

Darlene Madott is a Toronto lawyer and writer. She won the ‘2002’Anne & Henry Paolucci Prize for Italian American Writing in Fiction. She was first published by Women’s Press in 1998, in Curaggia, a collection of writing by women of Italian descent.

Edition details

• Publisher: Womens Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0889614407
• ISBN 13: 9780889614406
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186