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Loading... The Stubborn Season (original 2002; edition 2002)by Lauren B. Davis
Work InformationThe Stubborn Season by Lauren B. Davis (2002)
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  mahallett | Sep 30, 2015 |   This is the question that haunts Irene MacNeil, a young girl growing up in Toronto during the Great Depression. She lives with her mother, Margaret, who teeters precariously on the brink of depression, and with her father, a pharmacist who has found solace in alcohol. The turmoil in their home reflects the crumbling of the economic and social structures around them. Irene heartbreakingly describes Christmas as the only “ceasefire” in her household: a brief reprieve in which Margaret miraculously summons the energy to bake and decorate; and Douglas, albeit white-knuckled, manages to control his toxic intake for a couple of days. As Irene becomes a young woman, she is consumed by her mother’s increasingly erratic behaviour. In a world gone mad with poverty, unemployment, and bigotry, she will unexpectedly find comfort in a young man from a Jewish farming community in Saskatchewan, who is fighting his own battle for dignity and a place to belong. A Stubborn Season, although not the first of her works I’ve read, was Davis' debut novel. Cast with vivid characters, each page is alive with sense of place and history: the claustrophobic darkness of a Victorian row home, a steamy summer afternoon in a Toronto city park, the fearful stench of a jail cell, the loneliness of a “box car cowboy” riding the rails. Impressive, and highly recommended! (  )3  lit_chick | Jul 3, 2014 |  )2 marybx | Mar 6, 2011 | )3 janetwatson | Jun 24, 2009 | This review was written by the author. Since I wrote this book, I'm obliged to say nice things about it to keep it from haunting me. However, it doesn't feel right to self-promote like that, so let me instead share a review from Donna Nurse Baily in the Toronto Star:""A GLEAMING DEBUT . . . a terrific first novel. . . compelling social history. . . Davis superbly registers the sly skills young Irene develops in order to navigate her treacherous existence. . . Davis adopts a refreshingly old-fashioned approach: She begins at the beginning. When characters do glance back, it’s mostly to explain the very recent past. This allows the reader to get to know the characters as they get to know themselves. It produces an intimate illusion of a shared history, especially in the case of Irene and David, whom we watch mature into young adults. . . . Davis turn[s] a discerning lens upon Canadians of British stock. Unlike most Canadian novelists, she treats the very mainstream MacNeils as the product of a particular culture, and then she subtly compares that culture with others. . . . Davis bravely admits — then interrogates — the prevalent racist attitudes. . . This is a wonderful novel. . . every character is sincerely drawn; these sentences just gleam. THE STUBBORN SEASON is one of those rare novels I look forward to reading again." - Donna Bailey Nurse And this from The National Post: "...well researched and crisply written...Davis's talent is unmistakable... she evokes with harrowing precision. ... Margaret is one of the most memorable characters I have encountered in contemporary Canadian fiction... inspiring...Davis's portrayal of Depression survivors shows the human spirit can be amazingly strong and resilient." -The National Post, ( ) Laurenbdavis | Apr 28, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
Where does one person end and the other begin? That's the question that haunts Irene, a girl growing up in Toronto during the Great Depression. Living with her father, a pharmacist who finds comfort in the bottle, and her mother, a woman teetering on the edge of her own depression, Irene's crumbling family situation mirrors the economic and social turmoil just beyond the front door of their respectable, working class neighborhood.As she grows into a young woman, Irene finds herself consumed by her mother's increasingly erratic moods and isolated from a world where unemployment, poverty and bigotry have taken firm root in the water-starved soil of town and country. Yet in the midst of lives that seem lost, Irene finds strength in the unlikely form of David, a young man from the Jewish farming community of Sonnerfeld, Alberta, who is fighting his own battle for dignity, hope and a place in the world. The Stubborn Season is an utterly compelling first novel, peopled with vivid characters and set against an era that emanates magically from every page. This is a story alive with the claustrophobic darkness of a Victorian row house; the icy loneliness of life riding the rails as a "box car cowboy"; the languid feel of a steamy Sunday afternoon when respectable people closed their stores, and their lives, against intrusion; and the stench of fear in a jail cell packed with communist agitators desperate to change a broken system. It is a story that is hard to put down, intimate in its knowledge of human struggles and strengths, wonderfully written, and altogether satisfying. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing AuthorLauren B. Davis is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers 
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.16)
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interesting portrayal of mental illness and enablement. (