That Just Happened!

 Laurence, Margaret.  The Diviners.  McClelland & Stewart (1974).

The culmination and completion of Margaret Laurence’s celebrated Manawaka cycle, The Diviners is an epic novel.

This is the powerful story of an independent woman who refuses to abandon her search for love. For Morag Gunn, growing up in a small Canadian prairie town is a toughening process – putting distance between herself and a world that wanted no part of her. But in time, the aloneness that had once been forced upon her becomes a precious right – relinquished only in her overwhelming need for love. Again and again, Morag is forced to test her strength against the world – and finally achieves the life she had determined would be hers.

The Diviners has been acclaimed by many critics as the outstanding achievement of Margaret Laurence’s writing career. In Morag Gunn, Laurence has created a figure whose experience emerges as that of all dispossessed people in search of their birthright, and one who survives as an inspirational symbol of courage and endurance.

From The Publisher

Well, I can cross another one off the list of GG Award Winners and I am pretty glad I did, because this book was long.  It took me two attempts to read the whole thing, but I did start to enjoy it more from the middle of the book.  I didn’t enjoy it as much as  A Jest of God, but it was well-written.  I had forgotten that A Jest of God was part of a series, so I was unaware that this was the last in that series.  I do like to read a series in order, but these books stand alone.  There wasn’t a connective thread, except that it has to do with small town living and the people within.

The book is written from Morag’s point of view and switches between her current life and memories of her childhood.  The switches are easy to follow as they are marked with their own subtitles.  I feel a little bit like I have read this story before; small town girl wants to break away and experience big city life, but finds things are not as green on that side.  Yep, pretty sure I have read it before.  Despite this, Laurence really can write a good novel.  You can tell the quality of writing is better and the story was well thought out. 

Themes are relationships, family, self-discovery, family.  I would say this is a Pick it up if there is nothing better.

This was read toward my personal Governor General Award Winner for Fiction Challenge.