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Loading... Summer of My Amazing Luck (1996)by Miriam Toews
Loved this book! I live in Canada, and so many of the weather references rang true to me. Thoroughly enjoyed the cast of characters, and the hilarious yet tragic vivid descriptions of common events in a young single mom's life ... 3 wheeled umbrella stroller in the rain, bike riding yuppster passing in spandex ... (  ) judelbug | Sep 6, 2011 |  There's nothing amazing or lucky in this book. Perhaps a better title would have been, "My Down-And-Out Tale." Perhaps the title is trying to be ironic. It's a story about a single mother who's on welfare. Her situation is miserable. But her story is told with an air of humor and indifference to her environment. There aren't very many novels written about the welfare class. And there are even fewer novels written about women on welfare free of moralizing. This book simply tells the story, and it is what it is. In this way Miriam Toews demonstrates her ability to make her writing interesting while writing about common uneventful sorts of things. In some ways this book could be described as a first person narrative focusing of trivial everyday sorts of thoughts and feelings. There are some symbols and motifs for people who look for them: rain, washing off graffiti, diverting storm water from one place to another, flooded basements, a journey to nowhere. Then near the end there is some excitement and new hope. It ends with mild optimism, but certainly no "happily ever after." The following quotation caught my eye for some reason. It's two poor people talking about being poor: "Yeah, but we're poor because we're stupid. And being poor makes us more stupid." "No, it doesn't. It makes other people think we're stupid. You know there are so many pissed-off people who are considered much more successful than me, but I think I'm happy, I feel happy. I don't know why. I have Dill. I'm young. We're on the road. Stuff's happening. I wish it was enough to be happy. It should be, you know. That should be the mark of success, you know, just a general feeling of happiness...." (  )1  Clif | Jun 2, 2010 | I liked this book about a welfare mother. practicalkatie | Jul 4, 2007 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0676978479, Paperback)A Novel by the Governor General’s Literary Award—winning author of A Complicated KindnessLucy Van Alstyne always thought she’d grow up to become a forest ranger. Instead, at the age of eighteen, she’s found herself with quite a different job title: Single Mother on the Dole. As for the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, well…it could be any of number of guys. At the Have-a-Life housing project–aptly nicknamed Half-a-Life by those who call it home–Lucy meets Lish, a zany and exuberant woman whose idea of fashion is a black beret with a big silver spider brooch stuck on it. Lish is the mother of four daughters, two by a man on welfare himself and twins from a one-week stand with a fire-eating busker who stole her heart–and her wallet. Living on the dole isn’t a walk in the park for Lucy and Lish. Dinner almost always consists of noodles. Transportation means pushing a crappy stroller through the rain. Then there are the condescending welfare agents with their dreaded surprise inspections. And just across the street is Serenity Place, another housing project with which Half-a-Life is engaged in a full-on feud. When the women aren’t busy snitching on each other, they’re spreading rumours–or plotting elaborate acts of revenge. In the middle of a mosquito-infested rainy season, Lish and Lucy decide to escape the craziness of Half-A-Life by taking to the road. In a van held together with coat-hangers and electrical tape and crammed to the hilt with kids and toys, they set off to Colorado in search Lish’s lost love and the father of her twins. Whether they’ll find him is questionable, but the down-and-out adventure helps Lucy realize that this just may be the summer of her amazing luck. Miriam Toews’s debut novel, Summer of My Amazing Luck opens our eyes to a social class rarely captured in fiction. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, it is inhabited by an unforgettable and poignant group of characters. Shortlisted for both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, it also earned Miriam the John Hirsch Award for the Most Promising Manitoba Writer. (retrieved from Amazon Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:10:12 -0400) Eighteen-year-old Lucy isn't sure who the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, is: "Usually, I just enjoyed Dill without wondering how exactly he got here." Her closest friend is wild, dynamic Lish, a young mother who, like Lucy, lives on the dole in a Winnipeg housing project. In a voice that's vulnerable, observant, and deadly funny, Lucy describes a summer among the projects' eccentric residents: the hippies, who heal earaches with onions; the refugees of abusive and lost love; and open, bohemian Lish, who helps Lucy face her own sorrows and confusions.… (more) |
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