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Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler
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Sarah Canary (original 1991; edition 1991)

by Karen Joy Fowler

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
7502429,765 (3.58)49
Set in the Old West, this is the strange, magical tale of Sarah Canary and the ragtag band of misfits and lovers she trails in her wake When black cloaked Sarah Canary wanders into a railway camp in the Washington territories in 1873, Chin Ah Kin is ordered by his uncle to escort 'the ugliest woman he could imagine' away. Far away. But Chin soon becomes the follower. In the first of many such instances, they are separated, both resurfacing some days later at an insane asylum. Chin has run afoul of the law and Sarah has been committed for observation. Their escape from the asylum in the company of another inmate sets into motion a series of adventures and misadventures that are at once hilarious, deeply moving, and downright terrifying.… (more)
Member:qebo
Title:Sarah Canary
Authors:Karen Joy Fowler
Info:
Collections:no cover, Read 2013, Read but unowned
Rating:
Tags:*FICTION*

Work Information

Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler (1991)

  1. 10
    Wild Life by Molly Gloss (lquilter)
    lquilter: Gloss writes beautifully, as does Fowler. The settings are similar -- 19th century Pacific Northwest. The premise is also related; an almost realistic novel that slips into SF-ality.
  2. 10
    The Vegetarian by Han Kang (vwinsloe)
    vwinsloe: Both books involve a mysterious woman and the perceptions, projections and assumptions about her by others.
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» See also 49 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 24 (next | show all)
The vivid characters that drew me into the story lost their fascination and the story lost steam about half way through the potentially wonderful narrative.

[b:We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves|16176440|We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves|Karen Joy Fowler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364850195s/16176440.jpg|22026398] kept me fully engaged, but this title, not so much. ( )
  rebwaring | Aug 14, 2023 |
Chin is a Chinese immigrant working as a railroad builder in Washington State. A strange white woman shows up at his camp, speaking urgently but incomprehensibly, and he feels obligated to escort her to safety. He also suspects that she might be a manifestation of a goddess who can bring him good fortune. This turns into an epic journey across Washington, involving a night in jail, a mental asylum, a charlatan, a murderous hotel brawl, a canoe chasing a steamboat, a women's suffragist, and all sorts of motley characters and adventures, all of which cause great consternation for Chin but don't seem to faze the mysterious woman.

This is an oddly compelling story, with some oddly compelling characters. The plot is strange, and the ending even stranger, but ultimately this is a book about many different types of marginalized people trying to get by in a frontier society where the rules are ever-shifting, and about using stories to make sense of the world. ( )
  Gwendydd | Jan 22, 2023 |
I loved the beginning. The precarious existence of a Chinese man in the western US in the 1870s. Chin is good company. Complaints: I am not knowledgeable about Emily Dickinson's poetry. I find it enigmatic and frustrating. So I felt that when reading the excerpt at the start of each chapter. Dr. Carr was developed and abandoned. Shift to San Francisco was severe. The fantastical angle was suggested but not developed. Not much of an ending. Endings are hard. ( )
  Je9 | Aug 10, 2021 |
I know this story. Only, instead of Chin Ah Kin, a Chinese immigrant who reluctantly sets off on an epic journey to protect the strange, otherworldly woman who crosses his path, it was a handsome prince. And instead of B.J., a gentle madman who accompanies him on his quest, it was a brave little jester. And instead of strange, otherworldly Sarah Canary (who may be, but almost certainly is not a demon, an enchantress, a mermaid, a wild woman raised by wolves, or a notorious murderess on the lam), it was the Pied Piper, who leads everyone who gets caught up in her wake to their doom – or, if they are truly worthy, a kind of transcendence.

Except for that, it was exactly the same story….

This is one darn peculiar book. And I mean that in a good, and thoroughly admiring way. If I was commanded to try to sum it up -- put up against a wall, say, and threatened with being mauled by a tiger (this actually happens …) if I didn’t -- I would say that it is the story of America, told from the perspective of those whose stories have usually been ignored and airbrushed away. But through the magic of Sarah Canary, for once we hear a version of those stories – from the reviled immigrant labourer, from the young man whose take on reality is skewed just a little off-center, from the voiceless women, from the Native Americans. Everyone who has had to hide behind an alien culture, struggle into alien clothes, and even adopt alien names, just to survive.

As usual, Fowler’s story (and its meanings) is multi-layered: a story about “otherness,” which recognizes that nothing is simple: the marginalized are quite capable of great cruelty and exploitation of those who are a little lower down the pecking order from them. A story about “civilization,” and how very uncivilized it can be. A story about story-telling, and its power to make sense of the most absurd situations.

And as usual, Fowler’s writing is a delight: dreamlike and funny. The “plot” may seem to take a while to get going but, if you’re like me, you will suddenly realize that it’s been there all along. That you, too, have been swept along in the churning wake of Sarah Canary, and nothing will seem quite the same again.
( )
  maura853 | Jul 11, 2021 |
Bizarre and interesting. I'm not sure I understand anything about it. I loved the historical entries before each chapter. ( )
  Angel.Tatum.Craddock | Dec 17, 2020 |
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Epigraph
You only comprehend things which you perceive.  And as you persist in regarding your ideas of time and space as absolute, although they are only relative, and thence form a judgment on truths which are quite beyond your sphere, and which are imperceptible to your terrestrial organism and faculties, I should not do a true service, my friend, in giving you fuller details of my ultra-terrestrial observations. --Camille Flammarion, Lumen, 1973
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For Hugh
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The years after the American Civil War were characterized by excess, ornamented by cults and corruptions.
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Set in the Old West, this is the strange, magical tale of Sarah Canary and the ragtag band of misfits and lovers she trails in her wake When black cloaked Sarah Canary wanders into a railway camp in the Washington territories in 1873, Chin Ah Kin is ordered by his uncle to escort 'the ugliest woman he could imagine' away. Far away. But Chin soon becomes the follower. In the first of many such instances, they are separated, both resurfacing some days later at an insane asylum. Chin has run afoul of the law and Sarah has been committed for observation. Their escape from the asylum in the company of another inmate sets into motion a series of adventures and misadventures that are at once hilarious, deeply moving, and downright terrifying.

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