Joan Clark (2) (1934–2023)

Moranna is an amazing character. Complex, eccentric,mentally ill and she behaves poorly so many times. But I rooted for her always as she tries to handle her bipolar/ manic depression( although what her mental health name is we aren’t told as she is never diagnosed). Moranna is impulsive , loud, and intense. Although she is an extreme character we all feel like she does in her quest to have a meaningful life and experience joy and her family.
Moranna loses her husband and two daughters show more because she loses control but she never stops loving them or missing them. As the novel unfolds Moranna begins to understand herself, her triggers and how to control her behaviour. She has a nice relationship with Bun and starts to repair her relationship with her brother. When she sees her daughter on tv ( at the pub as she doesn’t have a tv and only late in the book does she get a phone) she decides to go to her daughter’s wedding and try to see her two girls. There is so much she must control in order to present herself properly outside the church and boy was I rooting for Moranna to have a successful day.
There is hope in this novel and redemption that is deeply grounded in Cape Breton and There is Moranna who plays the piano board to an audience of chairs. show less

Moranna MacKenzie is a brilliant, creative woman who also suffers from a mental illness that is probably manic depression (now called bipolar disorder). She lives in an old farmhouse in Baddeck, Nova Scotia where she carves wooden figures to sell to the tourists who take the Cabot Trail right in front of her house. Some mornings it would be easier to stay in bed but she has developed a system that gets her up. One of those things is to play the piano board for an audience of chairs. She show more doesn't want to take medication because she fears losing her creative impulses and so she has developed coping mechanisms. They don't always work and lots of people in the small town of Baddeck call her crazy. Fortunately, Moranna has a few guardian angels who are prepared to accept her as she is and provide support. One of those is her lover, Bun, who lives with her when the ferries between Cape Breton and Newfoundland are not running. Another is her brother who manages her finances and runs interference when Moranna goes too far.

Over 30 years ago, during a manic episode, Moranna left her two daughters and their cousin on an island in Bras d'Or. Her husband, a journalist, was in Moscow at the time and Moranna was left to look after the girls with only the part-time assistance of a neighbour girl. Moranna knew what she did was wrong and took to her bed while her father and stepmother looked after the children. A local doctor suggested treatment in the Nova Scotia asylum so Moranna was packed off there while her in-laws took the children. That was the last time Moranna saw the girls and she has thought of them ever since.

Then, by chance, she sees an interview with her daughter, now a renowned scientist. She learns the daughter will be in Halifax to get married and she is determined to contact her. It could go so wrong but Moranna knows she has to make the effort.

I found Moranna a complex and engaging character. She would probably be hard to handle in real life but if one made the effort, as Bun and her neighbour, Lottie, and others did, she would be interesting to have around. I found it fascinating to get this glimpse into the mind of someone with manic depression. Joan Clark has said she learned most of what she knows about the illness by observation but she has also said she is "always vulnerable to the emotional weather of the characters in my novels". So I think she, to some extent, became a person with those highs and lows.

This appears to be the last book Joan Clark has written. She is now 79 years old so maybe she has retired. Or maybe she is working on something and the literary world has something to look forward to. I hope that is the case. show less

I read this book several years ago. If I had a top ten list, it would be on it. This is a fictionalized account of the life of Freydis, daughter of Erik the Red. The same Erik who settled Greenland because he had been kicked out of Iceland. His son Leif discovered Newfoundland.
The historical record has very little to say about Freydis, but what it does say is startling. Apparently, Freydis borrows Leif's boat and leads an expedition to Newfoundland. While there she incites a massacre of her show more fellow Greenlanders.
Every book, fiction or non-fiction, that I've read about Freydis portrays her as a bent, sick, perverted person. Joan Clark manages to make her human. She attributes motives to Freydis that the rest of us can understand. A proud woman with a lust for power, she sees her social position slipping away due to the decisions of the men in her family. The regrettable actions she takes in order to retain what she considers her birthright change her life forever.
The first two thirds of the book tell Freydis' story. Then comes a section that to me doesn't fit. It seems unnecessary. It ties up the loose ends of the people who remain in Newfoundland. To me the real story is about Freydis, the decisions she made and the consequences she bore. show less

The Birthday Lunch is an account of a family struggling to regain its equilibrium following a sudden accidental death. Lily McNab is struck down crossing the street on her 58th birthday, leaving behind Hal, her husband of 33 years, daughter Claudia, son Matt, and her sister Laverne. Each of the surviving family members responds to Lily’s abrupt passing in a way that is distinctly personal. Clark probes these responses with the clear-eye of a novelist, and in the process creates a richly show more textured and emotionally authentic story that does not shy away from the mean and petty aspects of human nature. As in her previous novels Joan Clark's grip on the elements of her story is unwavering. The narrative is related from multiple points of view, and the author's skill is such that she can jump with apparent ease from one character to another, often within a single scene, without jolting the reader out of the story. Flashbacks are introduced at opportune moments, expanding on what we know of the characters and giving heft to their actions and motivations in the present. The New Brunswick setting is drawn in loving detail, coming alive with visual and sensory cues. It all adds up to a superb performance by a writer whose talents, late in her career, show no sign of diminishing. In the end, the story of Lily McNab’s death turns on a petty rivalry for her affections between her husband and her sister. If only Hal would stand up to his sister-in-law, if only Laverne would let go of the numerous minor disappointments that have soured her life, then Lily might still be alive. But human nature being what it is, the two are still tormenting each other in the book's final scene. The Birthday Lunch is a moving and disquieting novel. In these pages Joan Clark demonstrates that the smallest actions can have life-altering consequences. show less