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From the Back Cover
The Canarys are quite unlike any other family. Little Joan is exquisite, reclusive and plays the piano like Mozart. Her sister Marcy is a nymphomaniac, while Sonja is enormous and knits compulsively. Their parents by comparison seem quite normal, but then they have their own peculiar habits.
‘‘This book begins with the birth of its central figure, a tiny, white-haired, angelically beautiful child, who is thought to have cried, ‘Oh no, not again!’ at her first sight of the world, and is thereafter mute. She takes up residence in a closet, and becomes the repository of all her family’s secrets; and very odd secrets they are. Then she refashions them into her own explosive work of art. Barbara Gowdy surprises and delights; she also – which is rarer – gives us moments which are at the same time preposterous and strangely moving.’’
MARGARET ATWOOD
‘‘Barbara Gowdy has a sharp, surreal edge and a beguiling sense of humour; her prose comes from a darker place whose other residents include Lorrie Moore and Alice Munro. 'Mister Sandman' is funny and moving at the same time – strange rather than wacky; touching rather than sentimental. Gowdy invites the reader’s complicity, and makes us fall in love with her characters… a subtle and original talent.’’
JESSAMY CALKIN, 'Observer'
‘’This is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read. Gowdy takes the ordinary and turns it inside out. The writing is studded with unlikely, apposite metaphors, conceits, 'bons mots', puns and mordant humour. Gowdy has performed a sleight of hand – she made what is strange seem normal.’’
ALICE THOMSON, 'Scotman'
‘‘Gowdy has written a great novel – funny, bizarre and strange. She deserves to be catapulted into the front rank of Canadian novelists.’’
IAN CRITCHLEY, 'Literary Review'
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Customer Reviews
I was not especially gripped by the cover description, but when I started reading it, I found it difficult to stop. It truly is a heartwarming tale of a pretty dysfunctional family in Canada in the early 1960s and thereafter. Although each member is dysfunctional, rather more in a small town way, than the dysfunctionality of today, it is difficult not to like and finally love each member. Their relationships with each other survive several tests, and their love for each other could teach each of us something about tolerance.
Barbara Gowdy has created some lovely characters here, and this book is a book you'll want to read more than once, and a book that you will want to give to lots of friends.
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