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.

Martin, Ann M.  The Babysitter’s Club Prequel: The Summer Before.  Scholastic Inc. (2010).

Before there was the Baby-Sitters Club, there were four girls named Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill. As they start the summer before seventh grade (also before they start the BSC), each of them is on the cusp of a big change. Kristy is still hung up on hoping that her father will return to her family. Mary Anne has to prove to her father that she’s no longer a little girl who needs hundreds of rules. Claudia is navigating her first major crush on a boy. And Stacey is leaving her entire New York City life behind in order to find new friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

Scholastic.ca

Well…it was okay.  I think I was really looking forward to this and perhaps I set my sights too high.  If you have ever seen the movie ,  you would see how similar the movie is to the prequel, which came out this year.  The movie also sees Kristy worrying about her dad forgetting her birthday and the girls facing the obstacles of growing up.  The difference is, in the movie the club is already formed and the charges make more of an appearance.  Also, I think the Pikes have red hair in the movie (and in the rest of the series…Mallory definitely does) correct me if I’m wrong. 

I liked Stacey’s journey to Stoneybrook and I wanted to know more about what happened to her after she moved (back to the original books, I suppose).  Kristy and Mary Anne’s relationship is obviously very strong, which is true to the series, but the fact that she knows so much about Kristy and is her sole confident is similar to the movie as well.  Claudia also struggles with feeling separated from the girls in the movie…

I think the similarities are a little too much.  I feel like I am already familiar with this story because I saw the movie (and owned it, so it was viewed multiple times).

Good attempt, and if you are a BSC fan, definitely worth the read.

Beckett, Bernard. Genesis.  McClelland & Stewart and Tundra Books (2009).

It’s late in the 21st century and the island Republic has emerged from a ruined, plague-ridden world, its citizens safe, but not free, and living in complete isolation from outside contact.  Approaching planes are gunned down, refugees shot on sight.  Until a man named Adam Forde rescues a girl from the sea.

From the Library Website

I read this towards my 2010 YA Challenge.  I thought this book was okay.  The author combines Brave New World with Christian Creation stories to get Genesis.  The narrator of the story is a woman trying to get into ”The Academy” and she is giving her thesis to the Examiners.  Her thesis focuses on Adam Forde.  It was a bit more technical than I was expecting, but the premise is interesting.  After our current era ends (due to war and pestilence, of course) the old ways combine with the new to establish a “Utopian” society (called the Republic, like Plato’s Republic, which is a must read for all philosophy/justice in society lovers, though not young adults).  In fact, there is reference to a man named Plato in the book). There are definite parallels to the Christian Bible (this is a creation story of Adam). I think the ending made it a bit a more interesting read. No worries, I won’t include a spoiler!

The more you think about it after you finish reading it, the better the book seems; however, I wouldn’t say it is my favourite ever.  This review is kind of short because I feel so indifferent to it.  However, I have read on other sites that the Reader loved it, so maybe I just wasn’t in the mood.  I would say this was a “If You Have Nothing Else to Read…”