Lauren B. Davis
Author of Our Daily Bread
About the Author
Image credit: Photo by Helen Tansey
Works by Lauren B. Davis
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Cargill, Lauren (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1955-09-05
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Indiana University
Humber College (Creative Writing Mentor Program ∙ Toronto) - Occupations
- mentor (Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts Correspondence Program)
writer-in-residence (Trinity Church ∙ Princeton ∙ New Jersey)
editor (past European Editor ∙ Literary Review of Canada )
teacher (SHARPENING THE QUILL) - Organizations
- PEN Canada
PEN America
The Writers' Union of Canada - Awards and honors
- Robert Adams Lecture Series pick, CBC LiteraryAwards shortlist, two mid-career WRiter Sustaining grants - Canadian Council for the Arts, Finalist - Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize
Relit Award Longlist (2009)
Globe & Mail "Very Best BookS of the Year List 2011 " OUR DAILY BREAD
Boston Globe "Best Books of the Year List 2011" OUR DAILY BREAD
Longlisted for the ScotiaBank Giller Award for OUR DAILY BREAD 2012 - Agent
- Kim Witherspoon (Inkwell Management)
- Relationships
- Davis, Ron (husband)
Cargill, Norma (adopted mother)
Cargill, Alexander (adopted father)
Seguin, Bill (birth father)
Busch, Catherine (birth mother) - Short biography
- Lauren B. Davis's new novel, "The Empty Room" will be published by Harper Collins Canada in May, 2013. Her most recent work is the critically acclaimed novel "Our Daily Bread," which was longlisted for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize and named one of the "Very Best Books of the Year" by the Boston Globe and The Globe & Mail.
She is also the author of the bestselling and highly praised novels "The Radiant City," (HarperCollins Canada 2005) a finalist for the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize; and "The Stubborn Season" (Harper Collins Canada, 2002), chosen for the Robert Adams Lecture Series; as well as two collections short stories, An Unrehearsed Desire (Exile Editions, 2008) and Rat Medicine & Other Unlikely Curatives (Mosaic Press, 2000). Her short fiction has also been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and she is the recipient of two Mid-Career Writer Sustaining grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts - 2000 and 2006. Lauren leads the Sharpening the Quill Writer's Workshops in Princeton, is a past mentor with the Humber College School for Writers, Toronto, and past Writer-in-Residence at Trinity Church, Princeton. For more information, please visit her website at: www.laurenbdavis.com - Nationality
- Canada (birth)
- Birthplace
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Places of residence
- Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Annecy, France
Paris, France
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada - Associated Place (for map)
- Canada
Members
Reviews
The uniquely challenging (and fascinating) recent novels of Lauren B. Davis inhabit a blasted moral landscape of human weakness and depravity. In Our Daily Bread and The Empty Room, she fearlessly chronicles the myriad ways in which people damage themselves and hurt one another as they go about satisfying cravings and fleeing responsibilities. The world of these novels is a contemporary one filled with temptation. However, Davis is first and foremost a storyteller, primarily concerned with show more immersing her reader in an engaging drama. She is not interested in preaching or moralizing. Even So is another example of her consummate art. Chic, attractive forty-something Angela Morrison lives a pampered life in affluent Princeton, New Jersey. Married to Philip, a successful financier many years older than her, Angela is comfortable but bored. It is a dangerous sort of boredom that afflicts Angela, the kind that breeds bitterness and frustration. Fed up with her husband’s priggishness, Angela wants to feel young again. Her craving is for romance and adventure. But Angela also has a good heart: she loves her son Connor (who is just about to start university), and volunteers at Our Daily Bread Food Pantry in nearby Trenton, a town that long ago lost its industrial base and where poverty and homelessness are rampant. The Pantry is run by Sister Eileen. Sister Eileen is suffering from a crisis of faith: deeply troubled by God’s silence and tormented by guilt over an unforgivable act from her youth. Sister Eileen does not like Angela—she thinks the woman is spoiled and irresponsible—but her disapproval serves no purpose: she must, for the good of the Pantry and to remain true to her faith, view Angela through the rosy glow of God’s love. When an opportunity arises to turn the vacant lot next to the Pantry into a community garden, Eileen asks Angela to oversee the project along with Carsten, a professional landscaper. It turns out Carsten is exactly what Angela is looking for—unattached, attractive, attentive, with a mysterious air of foreignness—and a playful flirtation quickly blossoms into a full-blown affair. When Carsten gives her keys to his house, Angela begins to imagine their future together. Angela Morrison’s downfall, when it comes, is nobody’s fault but her own: the result of overblown, unjustified expectations and wilful blindness. But when her reckless behaviour turns tragic, she seeks an unlikely saviour in Sister Eileen. It is not unusual for Lauren Davis to take risks in her fiction—to place weak and reprehensible characters front and centre. In Even So, she has written a novel about a profoundly selfish woman who acts to satisfy her own desires with little regard for consequences or the pain she causes others. When those desires are thwarted, she becomes petulant and self-destructive. But Davis knows what she’s doing. The story she tells is suspenseful and moving, characters and setting are vividly drawn with precise attention to detail, the psychology of the novel is persuasive, her prose sparkles. The novel’s lesson is embedded in the drama and arises naturally from the action. Despite her main character’s deceitful nature and personal failures, we are drawn into a compulsively readable narrative that is impossible to put down.
Readers may not like Angela Morrison, but Lauren Davis ensures they will be captivated by her story. show less
Readers may not like Angela Morrison, but Lauren Davis ensures they will be captivated by her story. show less
I really like this book.
I was surprised and pleased to read a fantasy novel set in Toronto’s Kensington market, a place I once knew very well. I lived nearby, I shopped there, I dreamed there, because of the wonderful things I found – the cheese shop, where I could taste any manner of cheese from all over Europe before settling on my choice; Courage My Love, the wonderful second hand clothing shop where I discovered tuxedo pants and all manner of fun garb; the fish store that to my show more horror had a real shark hanging from a sign pole; hot Jamaican patties; and George Brown College, which I attended for several months, studying Mixology and bar management.
To find a magical rendition of this once beloved place was a joy.
I went into the reading with a little trepidation, knowing that addiction would play a large part in the story. The topic is tough and personal, and as well, I live in a city where hundreds of people die every year from bad drugs. Despite that apprehension I loved how the story unfolded, beginning in one of my favourite places, a big old bookstore, with characters and magic and settings that were beautifully rolled out. Davis's language is just lovely, and her grasp of our fears and desires and struggle between the two is sure.
There were moments when I became concerned about how the story was going to go. I realised at one point that this was going to be a quest, and I have to say I have grown very tired of quest novels. Too often there just seems to be supposed wonder after supposed wonder, rather than scenes that are furthering the plot in any way, and I just don’t find that sort of thing entertaining. So there was a little while when I approached my reading with a little worry, but in fact the quest did make sense within the plot and did forward the character toward her goal, not just physically but psychologically.
Although there are two very different books, because of the reference to the Hans Christian Andersen tale, I am reminded of [[Eileen Kernaghan]]‘s book [The Snow Queen]. A beautifully written book which would be a fun one to read in conjunction with the [Grimoire of Kensington Market.]
I have given this book a four rating, which for me is high but not the very highest. That is a completely subjective rating and may have been affected by my inability to get enough reading time recently. I am certain that there are people out there for whom this would be a five, for sure.
I feel grateful to the author for writing this book, which challenges this reader In many ways and which also challenged the writer.
Well done. show less
I was surprised and pleased to read a fantasy novel set in Toronto’s Kensington market, a place I once knew very well. I lived nearby, I shopped there, I dreamed there, because of the wonderful things I found – the cheese shop, where I could taste any manner of cheese from all over Europe before settling on my choice; Courage My Love, the wonderful second hand clothing shop where I discovered tuxedo pants and all manner of fun garb; the fish store that to my show more horror had a real shark hanging from a sign pole; hot Jamaican patties; and George Brown College, which I attended for several months, studying Mixology and bar management.
To find a magical rendition of this once beloved place was a joy.
I went into the reading with a little trepidation, knowing that addiction would play a large part in the story. The topic is tough and personal, and as well, I live in a city where hundreds of people die every year from bad drugs. Despite that apprehension I loved how the story unfolded, beginning in one of my favourite places, a big old bookstore, with characters and magic and settings that were beautifully rolled out. Davis's language is just lovely, and her grasp of our fears and desires and struggle between the two is sure.
There were moments when I became concerned about how the story was going to go. I realised at one point that this was going to be a quest, and I have to say I have grown very tired of quest novels. Too often there just seems to be supposed wonder after supposed wonder, rather than scenes that are furthering the plot in any way, and I just don’t find that sort of thing entertaining. So there was a little while when I approached my reading with a little worry, but in fact the quest did make sense within the plot and did forward the character toward her goal, not just physically but psychologically.
Although there are two very different books, because of the reference to the Hans Christian Andersen tale, I am reminded of [[Eileen Kernaghan]]‘s book [The Snow Queen]. A beautifully written book which would be a fun one to read in conjunction with the [Grimoire of Kensington Market.]
I have given this book a four rating, which for me is high but not the very highest. That is a completely subjective rating and may have been affected by my inability to get enough reading time recently. I am certain that there are people out there for whom this would be a five, for sure.
I feel grateful to the author for writing this book, which challenges this reader In many ways and which also challenged the writer.
Well done. show less
I’ve just finished Against the Darkening Sky and I just loved it. Davis writes beautifully and she thinks beautifully as well. This story is of two miscast people, of different and opposing faiths, but it is also about belonging, ostracism, loss, love, and change. I thoroughly enjoyed her depiction of Northumbria at the time of its Christianisation, the intimate detail of so much of life, especially of the monk on the one hand and the two seithkona, or wise women, who listen to the gods, show more make sacrifices, and care for the villagers' physical and spiritual health. I loved the fervent Irish hermit, his foolishness and his wisdom and his love of everyone.
I think the most surprising thing about this book is it’s lack of prejudice toward either native or the incoming face. Very refreshing! show less
I think the most surprising thing about this book is it’s lack of prejudice toward either native or the incoming face. Very refreshing! show less
The Empty Room is a risky and courageous novel by a writer who, as we have seen before in Our Daily Bread, does not hesitate to confront humanity at its most abject and craven. Colleen Kerrigan is weaving a path toward self-destruction and is no longer able to hide it from friends and co-workers. A drinker with a serious problem that she refuses to acknowledge, she lives alone and, nearing fifty, has worn out most of her friendships from the days when her heavy drinking and its frequently show more embarrassing consequences were still more or less socially acceptable. By the time we meet her she is already well along the path, but not so far gone that she cannot envision for herself a future as a pathetic, drunken, friendless wreck. The action of the novel covers a 24-hour period, the day when Colleen hits absolute bottom and comes face to face with a choice that will either save her or finish her off. This is not a book for the faint of heart. Lauren Davis does not sugar-coat Colleen's addiction. She does not shy away from messy, stomach-churning details and grotesque behaviors that will make even the steeliest reader cringe with dismay. In The Empty Room Lauren Davis gives us the drinker's worst nightmare and in Colleen Kerrigan a protagonist whose habitual denial of her problem carries with it a sorrowful ring of truth, and whose story could at any moment turn from merely sad to tragic. We may be repulsed, but it is impossible to set aside the book. Compulsively we turn the page, seeking out Colleen's next booze-addled misadventure or ill-advised act of defiance. There is nothing glamorous in this novel. What we have here is unmitigated human weakness. Lauren Davis writes powerfully and unflinchingly of one person's struggle to overcome a cruel personal demon but makes no moral judgment. The Empty Room, dramatically urgent, unsentimental, occasionally painful to read, is also, strangely enough, filled with compassion. A wise and necessary book. show less
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- Works
- 9
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 362
- Popularity
- #66,318
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 42
- ISBNs
- 39
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
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