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Review
'Beyond good.’ Elle
‘Heartbreaking and riveting’ Red
'Quite suddenly, Canada's female novelists are taking the literary world by storm. There was never any question about the extraordinary qualities of Carol Shields and Margaret Atwood, but now Barbara Gowdy has clearly joined them and her sixth novel underlines how she has matured. A story of abandonment and alcoholism, told with insight and warmth in the most exquisite prose, Gowdy's new novel quietly casts a distinct spell. By the time it is over, you desperately want to start again. It is that good.' Daily Mail
‘Barbara Gowdy's speciality is dysfunctional families. That might not sound too promising, given that unhappy families, contrary to Tolstoy's oft-quoted assertion, are all alike, but this Canadian writer is gifted with a deliciously black wit, and an ear for the quirks and tics of the unconventional. Having encompassed not only Siamese twins, transsexuals, necrophiliacs and elephants in her previous novels, she seems to be on more traditional ground in The Romantic, an examination of the mysteries of love between two damaged children … Gowdy's compassion lights up even her most minor characters … talented, witty and thoughtful.' Amanda Craig, New Statesman, Book of the Week
Toronto Globe & Mail
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Customer Reviews
"When she is nine years old, her former beauty queen mohte "disappears," leaving a note that reads only - and incorrrectly - "Louise knows how to work the washing machine."
I thought that was just great - and captured the mix of tragedy and wry comedy which is apparant throughout the book.
I've come to the conclusion that I very much like Canadian authors - I haven't ready anything by one that I haven't enjoyed, and some are simply wonderful. This turned out to be a real find, and is one of the best books I've read for ages. Yes, you can compare it to Atwood, but it's so much more than that - Gowdy really does have a voice of her own. It was unbearably sad at the end - I was sitting in the airport trying to fight back tears when all I really wanted to do was have a good old sob. Wonderful stuff. Will definitely have a look for other titles by her.
Essentially this is a love story between Louise and Abel, brought together by little more than a shared sense of being outcasts at the age of 10; and as the novel's blurb gives away: "This is the unravelling story of their romance..."
The novel is far more than this however. Gowdy opens the novel with its ending, and the reader becomes entwined in the shifting memories of our narrator Louise, that are "washed up at odd moments and in pieces, like debris from a plane crash." This "debris" from the past is interwoven in a non-linear narrative that feels like the reading equivalent of doing a jigsaw. The effect is such that the already-known outcome becomes clearer and more devastating with every completed thread.
What really had me turning the pages though, is the glorious prose. Gowdy is a wonderful writer, and here is where comparison to Atwood surely originates. Gowdy has a remarkable style, and to my mind it's far more readable than Atwood. Her prose is poetic and resonant; the details of life cleverly observed; and our protagonist Louise is revealed as much through the wanderings of her mind as through her actions. The cast of characters are a wonderful mixture of the kind of flawed, likeable, deeply "real" people we meet every day of our lives - the people we are. That they make mistakes, yet remain warm and sympathetic, is ultimately redeeming in a novel that sees the "tragedies of adults. The mess they make of things."
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