A review by jadelianne
A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence

5.0

Margaret Laurence's A Bird in the House was honestly one of the best works I've read in a long time. Were it possible to give it 11 stars, I would. The writing style is very smooth, and rather unemotional considering the nature of the stories. The format of interconnected short stories featuring the same protagonist is a genius way of telling childhood stories; they don't always run in chronological order, and something about that makes you feel more connected to Vanessa. Perhaps it's that you feel less like you're watching her grow up, and more like you're remembering alongside her.
Each one of these stories is quiet, but profoundly devastating. Quiet in that the tragedies are not something heavily focussed on- they are just things that happen, they are normal. Which is also what made them so devastating.