The Stone Angel is very nearly a perfect thing of its kind. Hagar Shipley narrates the story of her life as she faces old age and death. Told in a first-person, present tense narrative, her story reveals her character and the characters of the persons important in her life. Other reviewers have remarked that Hagar is not a likable character; she's not. She has been and remains a self-willed woman unable to get a realistic perspective on the world because of her focus on herself. I think that she is more like me than I care to believe. I can despise an egoist's cruelty, but Hagar somehow engaged my sympathy as well. I have certainly felt fury at the indifference of the universe to my unique person, and Hagar has spent her life refusing to accept that indifference. In hospital, dying of cancer, she finally is able to show and receive a little kindness which does not finally impinge on her indomitable nature.
The other characters are drawn equally clearly but more sympathetically - a real feat since they are seen only through Hagar's eyes. This is a quiet book, beautifully written, and I'm grateful to have discovered Margaret Laurence. ( )

In this Canadian classic, ninety year old Hagar Shipley ‎remembers her life, from her childhood in the Canadian ‎prairies, through her unsuccessful marriage, to the present ‎day. Hagar is not an especially agreeable character, ‎however I think she was never supposed to be likable, and ‎Margaret Laurence does a brilliant job of giving her a voice. ‎Though The Stone Angel is not an action-packed novel and ‎may not be able to hold the attention of some, it is a ‎beautiful book and a remarkable read.‎ ( )

Imagining the world of the elderly and giving voice to a 90 year old character Hagar Shipley and turning it into a compelling read takes some doing. Margaret Laurence managed to pull it off in her late 30's. This was my first go around with her fiction but probably not my last. Narrated entirely by Hagar from the first page to the last she takes us from the early days of her childhood in a small rural town on the Canadian plains through a more disastrous than not marriage--to the death of her favorite son in a reckless automobile accident to the present day hospital where she lays dying. She is not altogether a sympathetic character and I don't believe that Ms. Laurence had any intention of making her into one. She struggles even early on against those who would impose their will on her--particularly her mercantile minded father but has no problem trying to coerce and control her husband or her two sons. At times as when she ruins the marraige plans of her youngest son John she is very mean spirited even. In the present time snatches of the novel her other son Marvin and his wife Doris yearn their own freedom from her and want to put her into a nursing home--something the fiercely independent minded Hagar resists with all her strength.

Laurence's look particularly at the toll aging takes on her heroine is quite remarkable. She plums the depths of her characters' psycology with much perception and even at times humor. Her writing is fluid--although sometimes at least for me the story dragged a little. So there is not much in terms of action and thrills--it however more than makes up for all that with an acute sense of reality to our common humanity and also with much grace. It is very much worth reading and pondering on afterwards. ( )

Hagar Shipley is ninety years old and is finding herself more and more pulled by the past, forced to reflect upon events which she felt she had no control over; but in truth, did.

Does that make her want to change the way she was, or even change the way she has become? No. She is strong-willed and tenacious; holding onto whatever little life she has left, just as she has all her life. She knows in reality, nothing can be changed – not even her indomitable nature. At times she feels she must make an attempt at tact and civility, but knows all too well the difficulty in trying to be something you are not:

“I will be quiet, I swear, never open my mouth, nod obligingly, keep myself to myself for good and all. And yet, even as I swear it, I know it’s nonsense and impossible for me. I can’t keep my mouth shut. I never could.”

Pride is her protection; her barrier against being perceived as weak. Others would welcome help, accepting it as an act of compassion and mercy. Not Hagar. To her, their ministrations are derived from pity, and she has no use for others feeling sorry for her:

“I’ll drink from this glass, or spill it, just as I choose. I’ll not countenance anyone else’s holding it for me…I wrest from her the glass, full of water to be had for the taking. I hold it in my own hands.”

In The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence skillfully uses flashbacks to reveal to us, and Hagar, how this unflinching personality has affected her life and relationships:

“How is it my mouth speaks by itself, the words flowing from somewhere, some half-hidden hurt?”

This hurt, this pain half-hidden in her mind will not show itself easily. And it is not until the end of her life, and the end of the book, we see why.

“I’ve waited like this, for things to get better or worse, many and many a time. I should be used to it…I don’t even know what I was waiting for except I felt something must happen – this couldn’t be all.”

In this statement we see her true ‘frailty’, her ‘weakness’. Her life was built around expectations that no one, not even she, was able to meet. She has paid a high price for her obstinacy, and it is not until she is facing her own death that she able to consider coming to terms with what she has done, and who she has been.

Time is finite. We all are limited in the life that we are given. As Hagar Shipley faces the end of hers, she sees that her pride was not the best part of her character. But this is who she is, and all she could ever be. She never knew any other way but her own.

“I can’t change what’s happened to me in my life, or make what’s not occurred take place. But I can’t say I like it, or accept it, or believe it’s for the best. I don’t and never shall, not even if I’m damned for it.”

It is not a path many of us would take. And that is why I liked this book. I get to see someone else go down a road I could not, so through her eyes I see what could have been, or, perhaps, what could be.

I really did not care for Hagar Shipley. She is not a very likable person. However Margaret Laurence has done an excellent job in developing the story and her characters. If this story was simply about Hagar in her youth, I doubt that I would have ever come to feel anything but contempt. But as an old woman, facing death and struggling against the frailty she has fought so hard against all her life, I cannot help but feel sympathy and compassion. She is stubborn and prideful, yet she is brave. She faces everything head on and never gives an inch. You have to admire someone who remains true to their character so completely.

I am giving The Stone Angel 3 Stars. I like the story and the telling of it, however it was not one that was so compelling that I couldn't wait to finish it or felt bad about letting it sit around for a day or two before picking it up again. ( )

I was first introduced to this book in high school where it was part of the curriculum. I didn't particularily care for it much at the time. I read it again in an English Lit. class in university and saw some of its finer point. I have since read it a third time and have realized what a wonderful book it is. Maybe it has to be read when the reader has had a bit more life experience. I think a certain amount of maturity is needed to really appreciate the imagery and nuances in this book. Not that I am discrediting the abilities of high-school students - I am speaking from my own experience. This is one of the best novels from a Canadian author ever written...maybe even number one!!! ( )