Loved this book . I love these types of books - magic realism. ( )

The characters in this book are one dimensional but likable (mostly). The recipes and glimpses of farm life give historical perspective. The Native American myths inter-weaving with the European understanding of life remind us how similar we are as humans, just trying to make sense of the evil and suffering around us.

The events, (incest, mutilation of animals, murder, mental illness, to list a few) were extreme and to my mind, unnecessary. Does every retelling of childhood have to be truly horrific for us to buy into it? Are authors afraid that if the story isn't disturbing the reader will dismiss it as whining? The more the story clumsily grabbed for my heart-strings, the further I backed away. ( )

This is the story of fifteen-year-old Beth Weeks and her family who live in a remote farming community in British Columbia during the Second World War. A plethora of eccentric and peculiar characters, a reserve of superstitious native Americans (or should that be Canadians?), a wild bear, a dead girl, a smattering of incest and the spirit of Coyote.

One of those books which I particularly love, where nothing much happens, but full of fascinating characterisation and breathtaking descriptions of the landscape. And a constant sense of the spirit world, right there on the edges of your vision where light meets dark.

So impressed I'm going to look out for her other book, charmingly called A Recipe for Bees! ( )

I bought this novel on an impulse buy from my local charity shop. I admit that I haven’t read a truly inspiring contemporary novel in years and I thought that perhaps this random act of book buying might change my luck. Alas, that was not to be.
The narrative is told by Beth, a young girl growing up in the 1940s in a rural village. She is bullied at school because of her appearance and her crazy father. She is bullied at home because of aforementioned mental father. There is a premise underlying the narrative that ‘something’ occurred on the night that her father went to kill a bear, that this ‘thing’ could be the spirit of a coyotee which has now possessed her dad. Which obviously accounts for all the mad behaviour. Examples include: killing Beth’s favourite kittens, making his daughter torture a cow and remove her ovaries, shouting at people a lot and generally acting irrationally.
The feminism in the book is completely overdone. The tribe of women who live on the plantation have a house full of mess and colour, they are happy and love each other, as all women do of course. The part when her dad showed her the cow ovaries and said with a strange smile these are what you have, this is what makes you female – that is truly overdone, and makes this man out to be severely warped. The threat of sexual assault is always near; women can’t even sit in a certain way without encouraging abuse apparently. However, lesbian relationships are obviously the way to go as no women are ever violent are they!
I have to admit that due to the violence and pointlessness of the plot, I failed to finish this novel. ( )

I liked this a lot. ( )