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Loading... A Good House (1999)by Bonnie Burnard
 Nickelini | Apr 22, 2013 |  This book is set in Stonebrook, Ontario. It begins just after WWII, and the book ends in the year of 1997. The book is a family history of the Chambers family-their lives, loves, births, weddings, divorces and deaths. That's a lot to cover especially when the family is a large and gregarious one. But Ms. Burnard does an admirable job of this. This book was the 1999 winner of the prestigious Giller Prize and I think it was a well-deserved honour. Her writing style is deceptively simple, but the character development of this large cast of characters is remarkable. The book covers all sorts of family events and catastrophies, but does it in such an understated style. It is not often that an author can achieve such a complete job of character development within one book. It usually takes a series to achieve this. But Ms. Burnard accomplishes this difficult task with aplomb. These characters live and breathe. The book paints a very rich and complex picture of human nature and human foibles indeed. (  )1  Romonko | Apr 10, 2012 | Easy enough to read but seemed to just ramble on and lack a focused story line. I found that towards the end there was just to many different characters and names to focus on. (  ) qofd | Jun 2, 2011 | The characters and the plot twist and turn in ways you don't anticipate and don't want them to go. Nevertheless, the characters and the plot seem to have to go the way they go. Recommended. (  ) debnance | Jan 29, 2010 | A beautifully told story, Burnard has a lovely talent at telling a story, and capturing the emotions of her characters perfectly. Although at times the story was a little slow moving at times, I had a hard time putting this book down, a very hard time. The writing style flows very nicely, describing enough to set a great scene, but also has short to the point descriptions. She was able to paint the perfect small town community as well as, “perfect” characters. By perfect characters, I mean ones full of flaws, emotions, pain, happiness, struggles and strengths. These are characters that seem very real to the reader as they read through the book and are ones the reader is able to connect and wish that these characters, weren’t going through the hard times they go through, or wish that they are happy and flourish. I also liked the way the book was written, having it span from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. Each section of the book a different year in the families lives, but it didn’t have a section for each year, just the important years of the family was focused on, although the narrator did fill you in on important evens, in these sections that lead up to what happens, I thought it was a clever method. You’re also able to see things from multiple view points, not just the grandparents, or the children, because the narrator is an anonymous voice that is able to give you insight on everyone around them. My only criticism as I said before, was that it did move a little slowly at times in a few parts, but over all a wonderfully written book, full of emotion and powerful characters. Review is also on my blog: http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/book-review-good-house.html ( ) bookwormjules | Sep 4, 2009 |
Burnard's wise and assured first novel is an accomplishment to celebrate. ...You don't just read A Good House, you move into it for a while. And if it's a more forgiving place than your childhood home, so much the better. Burnard's characters can show what thriving families have always known. ...this gem of a first novel... is essential Burnard: appearances are lovingly, nostalgically recreated to be followed by a devastating insight that belies all we initially see... It is a legend of pain, pretense and hopeless love, the stuff that small towns, even big towns, are made of. ...the finest novel published in some years in our country. Its grace, its generosity, its humanity are present on each of its pages.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0312420323, Paperback)It's not an easy thing to write a novel about a family. Of necessity--and as the narrative years advance--characters proliferate, success and tragedy accrue, events maneuver to the fore with faintly arbitrary impetus. First-time novelist Bonnie Burnard, however, evades such worn grooves with the purest renunciation: a patient and lovely voice. In A Good House, awarded Canada's Giller Prize in 1999, Burnard documents an Ontario family over half a century with unadorned, deliberate, and tender sympathy.Flush with post-World War II optimism, veteran Bill Chambers and his wife Sylvia settle in to the business of raising their three young children. Bill logs full days at the local hardware store; Sylvia strings the family's clothes out to dry in the backyard and proffers dinner punctually. Her wasting health, however, leaves her husband yearning for a contentment now stolen and her children disquieted by the sudden tenuousness of their security. When Sylvia dies and Bill remarries, his staunch and pragmatic bride Margaret displays a three-fold capacity: she allows him his sluggish and methodical affection; she preserves Sylvia's memory with untainted regard; and she cultivates a deft empathy with her stepchildren. Burnard's meticulous pacing nearly, but never quite, upstages the story itself, although her unwieldy and expanding cast of characters occasionally threatens such harm. Margaret is the real wonder of the book. While the requisite affairs, divorces, and funerals intervene--and as Bill declines excruciatingly into a belligerent stranger--she summons a reserve of affection, the source of which is admirably opaque. She perseveres in "hoping as mothers and fathers almost always do that the difficulties could be examined, could be broken apart and fixed one by one by one." Burnard's tale is dignified and generous. --Ben Guterson (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:00:07 -0500) Bill Chambers has come home from the Second World War with three fingers of his right hand missing, but with the will to preserve his family life intact. |
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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What I enjoyed most about this novel was Burnard's unique writing style where she packs a wealth of information in each sentence, and then packs her paragraphs with these full sentences. In doing this, she creates nuanced, rounded characters and tells a story without a lot of action. What she achieves on the page reminds me of the folk art landscape painting where every element is given equal weight and importance. And like folk art painting, Burnard's book is interesting and worthwhile, but it's not fabulously sophisticated high art either. However, it was good enough to win the 1999 Giller Prize, and that says something.
Recommended for: I think this would appeal to the reader who enjoys books by Carol Shields and that sort. I loved Burnard's packed sentences, but others might find them tedious. It is an impressive first novel. (