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mountie9's review
4.0
This was a wonderful challenging book for me to read. I have to be honest, this isn’t my usual type of book – I usually prefer light entertaining fluff in which I can escape from some of the challenges of real life (Men, kids and cranky nursing students). However, I wanted to challenge myself and broaden my horizons so that is why I signed up to review the latest in The New Faces of Fiction campaign. I have also had a prejudice against adult Canadian literature (None against YA or Kids), probably due to being forced to read a lot of it during my school years. Most of it I found to be depressing, overly descriptive, smug, self important, and most of the time set in the prairies, the bush or during the depression. In other words, Dull Dull Dull!!!
This book made me glad I decided to take on the challenge. The book was so goddamn beautifully written; I wanted to cry at times. The authors prose made me feel that I could almost reach out and touch the landscape and see the characters in their flesh and blood. Even though the story is set in Vancouver Island it reminded me of the simple summers of my childhood playing with relatives in small towns in Ontario like Madoc and Cobalt.
Mr Hooton’s description of the children and their lives are very realistic and you just know they are based on real people. He also describes beautifully the isolation of the foreigners who come and try to fit in here in Canada and of their longing for their homelands, but also of their hope in living in place where they can be free. It is an achingly beautiful and sad story and perfect for reading on a cold winter night.
My challenges with the book are mine personally and have nothing to do with the talent of the writer. I found that the narrative jumped around a lot from person to person which made it difficult at times to keep involved in the story. The novels conclusion left me with a feeling of sadness which overshadowed the feeling of hope that was at the heart of the story. At times I also got frustrated with how slowly the story was progressing, but I think that has a lot to do with how impatient of a person I am. Also there was very little humour in the story, which is something I think I need in order to really enjoy a story. Life is hard; we need to laugh more in order to get through the tough times!
The front cover says not to quote from the material without comparing with the finished book, but I am going to disobey this (I know, I am such a rebel). I don’t have the finished book, only the ARC, so in order to finish this review today I am just going to quote some of my favourite parts. So there Knopf!
“In Hangul there was a word for it, the unravelling and softening of memory and pain. But she couldn’t think of it, her Korean shrinking as her belly grew.”
“Korean was easier to speak but it confines made her feel claustrophobic. It was so imposing with its hierarchies and six levels of politeness, in how it seemed poetic, but it was also clinical, perhaps lacking something. Could it be joy?”
“Perhaps that all that home was – Family.”
“Laugher, that sounds had been missing from Deloume somehow, as thought he’d been waiting to hear it, but never realized it”
The following quote really resonated with me as I am a mom with a disabled child AND a so called normal child.
“His parents would never take things from Andy if he was attached to it. Sometimes he felt like he got punished for being normal”
I do recommend everyone to take a peak at the book, it is worth the read. And also Canadian authors, COME ON, let’s try writing something cheerful for once.
This book made me glad I decided to take on the challenge. The book was so goddamn beautifully written; I wanted to cry at times. The authors prose made me feel that I could almost reach out and touch the landscape and see the characters in their flesh and blood. Even though the story is set in Vancouver Island it reminded me of the simple summers of my childhood playing with relatives in small towns in Ontario like Madoc and Cobalt.
Mr Hooton’s description of the children and their lives are very realistic and you just know they are based on real people. He also describes beautifully the isolation of the foreigners who come and try to fit in here in Canada and of their longing for their homelands, but also of their hope in living in place where they can be free. It is an achingly beautiful and sad story and perfect for reading on a cold winter night.
My challenges with the book are mine personally and have nothing to do with the talent of the writer. I found that the narrative jumped around a lot from person to person which made it difficult at times to keep involved in the story. The novels conclusion left me with a feeling of sadness which overshadowed the feeling of hope that was at the heart of the story. At times I also got frustrated with how slowly the story was progressing, but I think that has a lot to do with how impatient of a person I am. Also there was very little humour in the story, which is something I think I need in order to really enjoy a story. Life is hard; we need to laugh more in order to get through the tough times!
The front cover says not to quote from the material without comparing with the finished book, but I am going to disobey this (I know, I am such a rebel). I don’t have the finished book, only the ARC, so in order to finish this review today I am just going to quote some of my favourite parts. So there Knopf!
“In Hangul there was a word for it, the unravelling and softening of memory and pain. But she couldn’t think of it, her Korean shrinking as her belly grew.”
“Korean was easier to speak but it confines made her feel claustrophobic. It was so imposing with its hierarchies and six levels of politeness, in how it seemed poetic, but it was also clinical, perhaps lacking something. Could it be joy?”
“Perhaps that all that home was – Family.”
“Laugher, that sounds had been missing from Deloume somehow, as thought he’d been waiting to hear it, but never realized it”
The following quote really resonated with me as I am a mom with a disabled child AND a so called normal child.
“His parents would never take things from Andy if he was attached to it. Sometimes he felt like he got punished for being normal”
I do recommend everyone to take a peak at the book, it is worth the read. And also Canadian authors, COME ON, let’s try writing something cheerful for once.
thislibrarianisreading's review
4.0
This novel had a very different story arc from what I was expecting. Rather than rising action-climax-falling action, or a wandering artsy place based novel, the story started with a bit of a wander, which I enjoyed because I liked the characters, but then a surprising shocker came near the end. Some characters' stories were left too open ended for my liking.
canadianbookworm's review
4.0
Another new voice in Canadian fiction pulls off a great first novel.
This book is set the summer in a small rural community on Vancouver Island during the first Gulf War. We get a variety of points of view of the people who live on Deloume Road and also occasional flashbacks to 1899 from Gerard Deloume, whom the road is named after.
We see the young boy Matthew and his developmentally disabled brother Andy. We see Matthew's friend Josh. There is another young boy Miles, whose family circumstances leave him feeling along in many ways. There is a Ukrainian immigrant butcher, who runs a deli and pig farm. We see Al Henry, a native artist whose pilot son has crashed in the northern B.C. bush, and his wife Beth. We experience the feelings of Irene, a young Korean widow, waiting on the birth of her child. The characters are different ages and from different backgrounds, but have Deloume Road in common.
Above all, we see how these lives come together and touch each other in ways that change lives. There is a real sense of community here, and a sense of loss. The characters here all experience or have experienced some type of loss, and while they are different losses, the feelings are common.
This is a poignant book with great characters and great imagery.
This book is set the summer in a small rural community on Vancouver Island during the first Gulf War. We get a variety of points of view of the people who live on Deloume Road and also occasional flashbacks to 1899 from Gerard Deloume, whom the road is named after.
We see the young boy Matthew and his developmentally disabled brother Andy. We see Matthew's friend Josh. There is another young boy Miles, whose family circumstances leave him feeling along in many ways. There is a Ukrainian immigrant butcher, who runs a deli and pig farm. We see Al Henry, a native artist whose pilot son has crashed in the northern B.C. bush, and his wife Beth. We experience the feelings of Irene, a young Korean widow, waiting on the birth of her child. The characters are different ages and from different backgrounds, but have Deloume Road in common.
Above all, we see how these lives come together and touch each other in ways that change lives. There is a real sense of community here, and a sense of loss. The characters here all experience or have experienced some type of loss, and while they are different losses, the feelings are common.
This is a poignant book with great characters and great imagery.
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