A Jest of God (1966)

Another classic of Canadian literature and a huge disappointment for me as a fan of Margaret Laurence whose Stone Angel is one of my favourite books.
A Jest of God follows Rachel Cameron, a 34-year-old spinster school teacher in the small prairie town of Manawaka. Because it’s told in the first person from Rachel’s view, we are privy to Rachel’s thoughts. For most of the book there is a wide discrepancy between what Rachel is in her visible public life, how she deals with and appears to others, and what she really thinks and feels. Rachel’s life is dull – she lives with her mother and has no real friends. Then she meets an old high school classmate, visiting for the summer from the city, and begins an affair. That yields one of Laurence’s wonderful lines: “Some poisons have sweetness at the first taste, but they are willing to kill you just the same.”
Despite Laurence’s writing, I really had a hard time with this book. I didn’t like Rachel at all and wanted to slap her silly: she hated being misunderstood but never said what she thought. She mistook a physical affair based on lust for love, and became obsessed with Nick.
Read this if: you’ve seen the movie Rachel, Rachel and want to read the book upon which it was based; or you’re reading the entire Laurence canon, as I am. 3 stars ( )

I don't usually re-read fiction, but I was a teenager when I first read "A Jest of God" and thought that I would see it from a different perspective now. I had forgotten how wonderful it is. ( )

Rachel, a 34-year-old teacher, lives at home with her gently tyrannical mother. Her first sexual relationship is with Nick, who goes away letting her think he's already married. A moving story, told plainly but with great insight and understanding for this young woman's predicament. [July 2005] ( )

First of all, the rating is low not because there was a lack of good writing. Margaret Laurence is a phenomenal writer. She truly is one of the “gems” of Canadian writers. There is just something about her prose that allows you to just become lost in her stories. And the story its self, what it’s about focusing on some important issues women face, during this time, what this women faced - feeling smothered by life, caged in by constraints of not being able to do what you wish and not shouting it out to those who are restraining you (work, mother, friends), is an important story to tell, and it was told well. I just couldn’t stand the protagonist.

For me Rachel was just not a character I could connect to or relate to. I didn’t feel sorry for her at all, which I think was the intention of the author. I wanted to shout at this person and tell her to grab the bull by the horns and take life in your own damn hands lady. And for this woman it wasn’t a stretch, for one, tell your mother off. Not in a mean way, but you are a grown woman, so allowing your mother to manipulate the way you feel and what you do needs to stop. At work, I understand her for “giving in”, I guess you could say. At the time the book takes place it was a “mans world” so sticking it to the man (no pun intended, well maybe a bit) could have caused her drastic consequences, but I couldn’t stand how everyone walked all over her. Also, one of her traits, which irked me, is how she constantly though everyone is concerned and judging her on what she does, wears, thinks and where she goes. That is a characteristic I really dislike. I know a lot of people have this to different degrees, but this woman was always so preoccupied with theses thoughts, I wanted to slap her and tell her to enjoy life and what’s happening around you. And the whole affair business bothered me. The guy was a scum bag, I guess in the end it helped her a bit, but I wanted rabid animals to attack him. I found him to be demeaning to her, and she couldn’t see it.

Perhaps all my issues with the protagonist, Rachel is a sign on how well the author did at creating her and telling her story, because I wanted something good to happen to her, I wanted her to come out of her cage, and be free. But, despite my own issues, this is a book that is well worth reading, a lot of others would enjoy it. I just didn’t get everything out of it I’d expected.

Review also on my book review blog - Jules' Book Reviews - A Jest of God ( )

This is the first book I've read by Margaret Laurence - and what a welcome discovery. Must find more.

The novel charts some grim, grey territory - an unmarried teacher in a small Manitoba town, painfully shy, socially awkward, repressed, no self confidence, a helpless victim of her widowed mother's tyrannyy. She stumbles into a 'summer romance' which inevitably ends unhappily, but she weathers romantic and health crises and at last gains some confidence and control of her life. She leaves the claustrophobia of small town Manawaka and relocates herself and her mother to Vancouver.

Laurence tells the whole story via the interior monlogue of the heroine and it's a triumph. This technique vividly conveys the young woman's anguish and confusion, then in the closing chapter it's a relief to see her opening up at last to new life and new possibilities. ( )