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wintersnacht's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
4.25
Begon heel traag, het verhaal is echt fucked up, maar wel goed geschreven.
kirstenrose22's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this up at the library book sale because the blurb on the back refers to Carol Shields, whom I adore. This book reminds me a lot of Shields - the author is also Canadian, there is a quiet, almost unflappable, tone throughout, and it's one of those books in which not a lot happens (and at the same, quite a lot does happen). It traces one family in Ontario from the 1950s to the present. The stepmother is definitely the standout character - just a rock at the center of everything, and always the one who somehow knows just what other people need. Sometimes the skips in the timeline were a little jarring (but how else do you tell a story that lasts 50 years?).
bluehound's review against another edition
3.0
Good narration but I didn't feel like I connected to any of the characters. Very well written
nebulous40's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sweetramona's review against another edition
2.0
I see that a previous reviewer compared this to a laundry list, and I think that's very apt. To me, it felt like a series of connected vignettes, but nothing that came together for me as a novel. There is so much description in this book, that while well-written, it overshadows both plot and character development. As a result, I didn't especially care what happened to the roughly-sketched characters in their meticulously detailed surroundings.
I think that Burnard was trying to reflect the ways that family ties, so intense during the early years when the family is under one roof, become attenuated with time, only to be quickly reestablished at times of crisis. The book is organised linearly, with chapters titled by year. In the early part of the book, the chapters are 3 years apart, stretching to 7 years in the middle, and 9 or ten years at the end, though the final chapter comes only 2 years after the last. In each case, we get a minimum of information, just the essentials of what has happened since the last chapter. Burnard handles this masterfully, introducing these isolated facts in a matter-of-fact way through the thoughts and actions of other characters. A second wife is introduced simply by noting that she will be arriving to an event with a family member who was married to someone else in the previous chapter. The meagre details offered about the lives of the protagonists were not enough to make me feel a connection to them, however, and they felt even more impoverished compared to the lavish descriptions of the house, the creek, the arena, and the route to the empty lot.
I recently went to a family wedding at which I was delighted to see cousins I had not spoken to in years. I have the idea that Bonnie Burnard was trying to create the same sense of eager anticipation between these widely spaced chapters. Unfortunately, for me this was a failed attempt.
I think that Burnard was trying to reflect the ways that family ties, so intense during the early years when the family is under one roof, become attenuated with time, only to be quickly reestablished at times of crisis. The book is organised linearly, with chapters titled by year. In the early part of the book, the chapters are 3 years apart, stretching to 7 years in the middle, and 9 or ten years at the end, though the final chapter comes only 2 years after the last. In each case, we get a minimum of information, just the essentials of what has happened since the last chapter. Burnard handles this masterfully, introducing these isolated facts in a matter-of-fact way through the thoughts and actions of other characters. A second wife is introduced simply by noting that she will be arriving to an event with a family member who was married to someone else in the previous chapter. The meagre details offered about the lives of the protagonists were not enough to make me feel a connection to them, however, and they felt even more impoverished compared to the lavish descriptions of the house, the creek, the arena, and the route to the empty lot.
I recently went to a family wedding at which I was delighted to see cousins I had not spoken to in years. I have the idea that Bonnie Burnard was trying to create the same sense of eager anticipation between these widely spaced chapters. Unfortunately, for me this was a failed attempt.
ldv's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful book a bout regular people who have a pretty normal life. one family and their relationships and choices, all realistic and non-dramatic. After reading two books that were a little bit more "out there' it was really nice to read something that was an everyday experience kind of book. it sounds boring, but it is simply "safe".
eososray's review against another edition
5.0
I like the meandering style of this family story.
I was rather partial to the story gaps, where chapters would start 2-9 years later and you are left to catch up on what had happened and what was happening. I found it an enticing way to read a story.
The almost never judgmental love that is portrayed in the story is a nice change from the often dysfunctional families in so many books.
I also like how, for the most part, the entire story focuses on the people in the family. Not on the changing world around them or even how those changes are effecting them. It's just about family dynamics through 50 years of love, tragedy, marriage, divorce, death and children.
I was rather partial to the story gaps, where chapters would start 2-9 years later and you are left to catch up on what had happened and what was happening. I found it an enticing way to read a story.
The almost never judgmental love that is portrayed in the story is a nice change from the often dysfunctional families in so many books.
I also like how, for the most part, the entire story focuses on the people in the family. Not on the changing world around them or even how those changes are effecting them. It's just about family dynamics through 50 years of love, tragedy, marriage, divorce, death and children.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
4.0
4 STARS
"A Good House begins in 1949 in Stonebrook, Ontario, home to the Chambers family. The postwar boom and hope for the future color every facet of life: the possibilities seem limitless for Bill, his wife Sylvia, and their three children.
In the fifty years that follow, the possibilities narrow. Sylvia's untimely death marks her family indelibly but in ways only time will reveal. Paul's perfect marriage yields an imperfect child. Daphne unabashedly follows an unconventional path, while Patrick discovers that his happiness requires a series of compromises. Bill confronts the onset of old age less gracefully than anticipated, and throughout, his second wife, Margaret, remains, surprisingly, the family anchor."
(From Amazon)
I had no expectations of this novel but WOW what a great read...and it's Canadian. A look at a family in the post-WWII. A Canadian Jennifer Haigh in my opinion. Hurry up and write more, please.
"A Good House begins in 1949 in Stonebrook, Ontario, home to the Chambers family. The postwar boom and hope for the future color every facet of life: the possibilities seem limitless for Bill, his wife Sylvia, and their three children.
In the fifty years that follow, the possibilities narrow. Sylvia's untimely death marks her family indelibly but in ways only time will reveal. Paul's perfect marriage yields an imperfect child. Daphne unabashedly follows an unconventional path, while Patrick discovers that his happiness requires a series of compromises. Bill confronts the onset of old age less gracefully than anticipated, and throughout, his second wife, Margaret, remains, surprisingly, the family anchor."
(From Amazon)
I had no expectations of this novel but WOW what a great read...and it's Canadian. A look at a family in the post-WWII. A Canadian Jennifer Haigh in my opinion. Hurry up and write more, please.
meganturnsthepage's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0