The Stone Angel (Phoenix Fiction) [Paperback]

 

 

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The character of Hagar ("stranger") from the Book of Genesis has retained a fascination for many readers over the millenia. In the Biblical story, Hagar is the servant of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham's child, Ishmael, after Sarah herself is unable to conceive. Twice, before the birth of Ishmael and thereafter, Abraham sends Hagar, at Sarah's insistence into the desert to wander and die. Genesis 17 and 21. On both occasions, God rescues Hagar and promises that Ishmael will be the father of a great nation of warriors. Throughout the Biblical account, there is an enmity between Ishmael and his descendants and Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, and his descendants. African Americans frequently describe themselves as Hagar's children, for her character as a lonely outcast. For example, a famous early blues by W.C. Handy is titled "All Aunt Hagar's Children, in a recording here by Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy An extraordinary story by Edward P. Jones takes Handy's title and adds new dimensions to the Biblical tale, stressing themes of common humanity. All Aunt Hagar's Children

The renowned Canadian author Margaret Laurence's (1926 -- 1987) novel "The Stone Angel" (1964) adds its own layers to the story of Hagar. The story is set in Manawaka, a small fictitious prarie town in Manitoba, Canada and spans roughly the late 19th to mid-20th Century. The main character and narrator is a woman named Hagar Shipley, (born Hagar Currie.). She tells her story when she is a woman, terminally ill, in her 90s. Hagar tells the story of her old age with many flashbacks to and dreams of her long life.

Hagar feels herself an outcast, a loner, and independent, as her Biblical namesake. She is not an entirely likeable person but rather is tough, raw, judgmental, and cantankerous. She has been living for 17 years with her 65 year old son, Marvin and his wife Doris in a small home. At the age of about 80, Hagar took up cigarette smoking. She is demanding and makes life difficult for her son and his wife who themeselves are frail and getting on in years. Marvin and Doris try to persuade Hagar to move to a nursing home, but Hagar refuses and runs away.

Hagar is not an unreliable narrator, but she has blinkers in how she sees herself. Laurence presents her convincingly while also inviting the reader to come to his or her own understanding of Hagar. The story is taut, sharp, and sometimes told with Hagar's withering judgments on herself and others. I find the book secular in outlook although replete with Biblical allusions, including Hagar herself, other Scriptural stories, and the young minister of Marvin and Doris, Mr. Troy, who visits and tries to comfort Hagar at critical moments late in her life.

Hagar was the child of a self-made man, Currie, who owned a successful general store in early Manawaka. She has two brothers and a mother who died when Hagar was very young. We see in the book the deaths of these three men and Hagar's reactions and memories. Hagar's father sent her to the eastern part of Canada to a finishing school even though Hagar felt the money would be better spent by sending her brother to college. When she returns, her father tries to make Hagar a suitable match, but she is uninterested. Instead, she marries Bram Shipley, 14 years her senior. Bram is shunned in Manawaka. Her father refuses to see her after the marriage and cuts her out of his will. She truly becomes an outcast, as was the Biblical Hagar.

Bram's first wife died of natural causes. He lives on a run-down farm but has no interest in working the land. He is taciturn, crude, and vulgar. Hagar with her manners and education, seems swayed by the opinions of others about Bram, but, to her own surprise, she responds deeply to Bram sexually. Hagar ultimately has two children, John, who dies, and Marvin, with whom she lives. She leaves Bram but returns when he dies.

Hagar strives to be independent. She tends to blame others for her misfortunes, but she realizes that when she married Bram she knew much of what he was about. She valued Bram's crudeness, vulgarity, and sexuality. She remained ambivalent, and her pride, particularly, got in the way. She was unable to stand up for what she wanted, but adopted the view of Bram of the higher, more reputable citizens of Manawaka, particularly her father. When Bram dies, he is buried in a plot with Hagar's father and Shipley-Currie is inscribed on the grave. There is some belated reconciliation here, perhaps similar to that which might occur between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac.

When Mr. Troy, late in the book, sings Hagar a hymn about serving God "with mirth" and rejoicing, she has an epiphany of sorts. She says: (p. 292)

"Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear. I was alone, never anything else, and never free for I carried my chains within me, and they spread out and shackled all I touched. O my two, my dead. Dead by your own hands or by mine? Nothing can take away these years."

As with most people, Hagar straddles uneasily between her insight into herself and her ingrained habits and responses.

This is a thoughtful, well-written book about growing old and about the never ending task of coming to terms with oneself and, as Nietszsche might describe it, becoming who one is. The book reminded me of two other recent works I liked a great deal in which an elderly narrator reflects on the course of his or her earlier life. The first is "Veronica" by Mary Gaitskill, in which a middle-aged but terminally ill narrator gains peace with her earlier life of tawdry sex and sexual exploitation. Veronica The second novel is "So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. In this acclaimed novel, a narrator in his 70s revisits and tries to understand haunting events from his youth, including the death of his mother and a sensational adulterous affair and murder-suicide involving a young friend.So Long, See You Tomorrow (Panther) These two books, and Laurence's, offer varying understandings of the relationship between old age and youth.

Robin Friedman

An unusual and insightful view of one's own life in retrospect, highlighting the frustration that a previously vivacious person feels when surrounded by old age. Perhaps more suitable for personal reading or study than prescribed school work,this is not always a comfortable read but is ultimately a rewarding one.

I study in a private college in Malaysia, taking the OAC course. Laurence's book has touched me in a way that no movie or play ever will. Hagar is so realistic and...so full of pride, that i almost feel like going up to her,shake her and shout,"You're old! Just accept that!" But when I finished the book, I looked at my own aging mother in a totally different light. I saw her as her own woman, with delicate layers waiting to be peeled.That is what i personally think Laurence was trying to achieve.This book is not just classified as Canadian fiction. This book defies the universal boundries.

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4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book but it needed a bit more of a plot.
I liked this book but it needed a little bot of a lot and climax. This book was a book that I wouldn't pick up to read in my leisure but i had to read for my OAC English class... Read more

Published on 11 July 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars It portrays realistically the life a strong women.
Margaret Laurence did an excellent job at balancing the past and present. Both stories had the same plot structure. Read more

Published on 8 July 1999

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a good book for those who don't believe in god.
The end of the book was disappointing because she shows really believes in God. Otherwises the book is pretty boring. However the shifts for present to past are quite clear.

Published on 23 May 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Not an easy read, but an enlightening one
I didn't want to like this book. Frankly, it made me think about things which, as a woman in my early 20s, I simply don't want to think about. Growing older. Read more

Published on 7 April 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars WORST BOOK of ALL TIME
FIRST I give this book 0 stars. I had to read this "book" for my english, and i mean this is far the worst thing i have ever encountered in my life. Read more

Published on 30 Mar 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 stars for talent, 2 missing for the story itself.
I'm a grade twelve honour student in Ontario who just finished reading this book. I believe that there are many issues that Laurence could have probed deeper instead of filling... Read more

Published on 23 Mar 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars A good old Canadian novel
The only thing true about that statement was the Canadian part. This book was one of the worst books I have ever read. Read more

Published on 2 Mar 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars A boring english assignment
I am a straight A student (grade 12) and a bookworm. When I got this book as an english assignment I figured it would be okay. I was wrong. Read more

Published on 6 Jan 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars A change from the typical hero story
I read this book for an English assingment and I thought it to be a change to broaden my horizen of how I look at life in general. It is a wonderful book. Read more

Published on 4 Dec 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming back to an old friend
I first read "The Stone Angel" when I was about thirteen years old... I read it in two days. Laurence did a marvelous job! Read more

Published on 28 Nov 1998

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