Rush Home Road

I ended up being disappointed with this novel. The first 200 pages were great, but as disaster piled upon disaster, I began to feel manipulated, and frankly, bored by it all. There were just too many coincidences, some unrealistic plot developments, and too much treacle. The novel is worth reading for the historical aspects of a black community in Southern Ontario, the prejudice towards them, and most particularly the women. Lori's second novel, The Girls, was infinitely better, and far more believable.

Wally Lamb!

Wally Lamb has a new book coming out this week: THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED. 800 pages! I'll have to put it on my Christmas List!

Sunday, October 26

It's a wet, cold day, so I'm reading...absolutely immersed in RUSH HOME ROAD, by Lori Lansens. It's set in the Chatham area of Ontario, with two story lines centred around Adelaide Shadd, who is fifteen when she's locked out of her parents' home the day the news arrives that her younger brother has been drowned. Go forward some fifty years or more to young Sharla Cody, child of a neglectful mother, who finds a home, love and security with Addy, now living in a run-down trailer park.

Lori wrote THE GIRLS, one of my favorite novels, and one I've passed on to many others.

Seeing THE STONE ANGEL the other night, and re-reading the novel a week earlier, reminded me of what a great writer Margaret Laurence was. I'm off to Skate Canada this week with Shirley, so I'm taking along THE DIVINERS with me.

I also recently finished Joseph Boyden's THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE, set in Moosonee, Toronto, Montreal and New York. He's an amazing story-teller....not sure the ending was the best, but, as often happens, I need to re-read it. When I enjoy reading a novel as much as this one, I tend to read it more quickly - as you might a letter - and I need to go back and savour it a little more.