Product Description
The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House are three of the five books in Margaret Laurence's renowned"Manawaka series," named for the small Canadian prairie town in which they take place.Each of these books is narrated by a strong woman growing up in the town and struggling with physical and emotional isolation.

In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, age ninety, tells the story of her life, and in doing so tries to come to terms with how the very qualities which sustained her have deprived her of joy.Mingling past and present, she maintains pride in the face of senility, while recalling the life she led as a rebellious young bride, and later as a grieving mother. Laurence gives us in Hagar a woman who is funny, infuriating, and heartbreakingly poignant.

"It is [Laurence's] admirable achievement to strike, with an equally sure touch, the peculiar note and the universal;she gives us a portrait of a remarkable character and at the same time the picture of old age itself, with the pain, the weariness, the terror, the impotent angers and physical mishaps, the realization that others are waiting and wishing for an end."--Honor Tracy, The New Republic ... Read more

Customer Reviews (79)

Good condition but......
The book was in relativly good condition for a used book, with minimal damage to the spine and the pages. The delivery took a bit longer then I would have liked but, was within the delivery estimate. There was some writing and highlighting in the book, very little, but I don't actually remember if that was in the description or not. Overall I was okay with it.

the life of an old lady
This is a very good story.It is a sort of soap opera.The story is the telling of the life of an old lady, Hagar Shipley (nee Currie), at the end ostoryf her life.She remembers (a touch of authorial needs here) in chronological order, so you see her grow up, marry, deal with the kids and bad marriage, etc.She is also telling of her life in the present.Here the author is magnifcent.From what we could find out about her, she was in her mid-thirties when she wrote this.It reminds me of Stephen King's "The Shawchank Redemption and Rita Hayworth" because both are so good at describing somethings and people that you would not expect them to know so much about.It must have taken a lot of research, education or experience to write these stories.
My wife was entranced by her use of language and it was beautiful, well done and interesting.I was put off by the soap opera storyline, but the language was truly wonderful to me as well.
An oddity is the publisher of this book, University of Chicago Press, notes on the back cover that this is Ms. Laurence's second book in the Manawaka series, which it is not.It is the first.It is slightly surprising that U of C Press would make such a boo-boo.

Hagar Shipley
The character of Hagar ("stranger") from the Book of Genesis has retained a fascination for many readers over the millenia. In the Biblical story, Hagar is the servant of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham's child, Ishmael, after Sarah herself is unable to conceive.Twice, before the birth of Ishmael and thereafter, Abraham sends Hagar, at Sarah's insistence into the desert to wander and die.Genesis 17 and 21.On both occasions, God rescues Hagar and promises that Ishmael will be the father of a great nation of warriors. Throughout the Biblical account, there is an enmity between Ishmael and his descendants and Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, and his descendants. African Americans frequently describe themselves as Hagar's children, for her character as a lonely outcast. For example, a famous early blues by W.C. Handy is titled "All Aunt Hagar's Children, in a recording here by Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. HandyAn extraordinary story by Edward P. Jones takes Handy's title and adds new dimensions to the Biblical tale, stressing themes of common humanity.All Aunt Hagar's Children

The renowned Canadian author Margaret Laurence's (1926 -- 1987) novel "The Stone Angel" (1964) adds its own layers to the story of Hagar. The story is set in Manawaka, a small fictitious prarie town in Manitoba, Canada and spans roughly the late 19th to mid-20th Century.The main character and narrator is a woman named Hagar Shipley, (born Hagar Currie.).She tells her story when she is a woman, terminally ill, in her 90s. Hagar tells the story of her old age with many flashbacks to and dreams of her long life.

Hagar feels herself an outcast, a loner, and independent, as her Biblical namesake. She is not an entirely likeable person but rather is tough, raw, judgmental, and cantankerous. She has been living for 17 years with her 65 year old son, Marvin and his wife Doris in a small home.At the age of about 80, Hagar took up cigarette smoking. She is demanding and makes life difficult for her son and his wife who themeselves are frail and getting on in years. Marvin and Doris try to persuade Hagar to move to a nursing home, but Hagar refuses and runs away.

Hagar is not an unreliable narrator, but she has blinkers in how she sees herself. Laurence presents her convincingly while also inviting the reader to come to his or her own understanding of Hagar. The story is taut, sharp, and sometimes told with Hagar's withering judgments on herself and others. I find the book secular in outlook although replete with Biblical allusions, including Hagar herself, other Scriptural stories, and the young minister of Marvin and Doris, Mr. Troy, who visits and tries to comfort Hagar at critical moments late in her life.

Hagar was the child of a self-made man, Currie, who owned a successful general store in early Manawaka. She has two brothers and a mother who died when Hagar was very young. We see in the book the deaths of these three men and Hagar's reactions and memories. Hagar's father sent her to the eastern part of Canada to a finishing school even though Hagar felt the money would be better spent by sending her brother to college.When she returns, her father tries to make Hagar a suitable match, but she is uninterested.Instead, she marries Bram Shipley, 14 years her senior.Bram is shunned in Manawaka. Her father refuses to see her after the marriage and cuts her out of his will.She truly becomes an outcast, as was the Biblical Hagar.

Bram's first wife died of natural causes.He lives on a run-down farm but has no interest in working the land. He is taciturn, crude, and vulgar. Hagar with her manners and education, seems swayed by the opinions of others about Bram, but, to her own surprise, she responds deeply to Bram sexually. Hagar ultimately has two children, John, who dies, and Marvin, with whom she lives.She leaves Bram but returns when he dies.

Hagar strives to be independent.She tends to blame others for her misfortunes, but she realizes that when she married Bram she knew much of what he was about.She valued Bram's crudeness, vulgarity, and sexuality. She remained ambivalent, and her pride, particularly, got in the way. She was unable to stand up for what she wanted, but adopted the view of Bram of the higher, more reputable citizens of Manawaka, particularly her father. When Bram dies, he is buried in a plot with Hagar's father and Shipley-Currie is inscribed on the grave.There is some belated reconciliation here, perhaps similar to that which might occur between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac.

When Mr. Troy, late in the book, sings Hagar a hymn about serving God "with mirth" and rejoicing, she has an epiphany of sorts. She says: (p. 292)

"Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear.I was alone, never anything else, and never free for I carried my chains within me, and they spread out and shackled all I touched.O my two, my dead.Dead by your own hands or by mine? Nothing can take away these years."

As with most people, Hagar straddles uneasily between her insight into herself and her ingrained habits and responses.

This is a thoughtful, well-written book about growing old and about the never ending task of coming to terms with oneself and, as Nietszsche might describe it, becoming who one is. The book reminded me of two other recent works I liked a great deal in which an elderly narrator reflects on the course of his or her earlier life. The first is "Veronica" by Mary Gaitskill, in which a middle-aged but terminally ill narrator gains peace with her earlier life of tawdry sex and sexual exploitation. Veronica The second novel is "So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell.In this acclaimed novel, a narrator in his 70s revisits and tries to understand haunting events from his youth, including the death of his mother and a sensational adulterous affair and murder-suicide involving a young friend. So Long, See You Tomorrow These two books, and Laurence's, offer varying understandings of the relationship between old age and youth.

Robin Friedman

An intriguing and great read
The Stone Angel is a very well written and enjoyable book.I would truly recommend this book to anyone in Sr. High or older; even as a high school student I rather enjoyed reading the novel.I found it similar to movie The Notebook, in the fact that it was someone reflecting on the trial and tribulations of their life except that The Stone Angel doesn't include much romance.Rather it deals with the issues of day to day life, in every stage of life.Therefore the ideas discussed in this book could relate to anyone's life; as all of us deal with at least one of the issues Hager faces, whether it is the death of a loved one, or arguing with a family member.But by dealing with all these issues Hager faces more challenges than the average person has to in a life time.Hager deals with these challenges in a unique but understandable way; making the novel both intriguing and a great read.This novel has many unexpected twists as it deals with the life of a ninety year old. Her life is full of sorrow and challenges but her strong personality allows her to preserver through the difficulties she faces throughout her entire life.

The Stone Angel is a well written novel.Through Margaret Laurence's use of a first person point of view it really allows you to relate to Hager by the end of the novel. Also, Margaret Laurence does a great job of depicting what life is really like; she doesn't add fantasy or unrealistic perspectives.By placing the novel in a Canadian setting it allows Canadians like me to really relate to and understand the true setting.

Dour, very dour
I was required to read this book for a high school assignment and found it to be laborious read. I found Hagar's character to be so bitter, angry, and grouchy that it just put a damper on the whole thing. She (as well as the other characters) is well fleshed out and that just makes things worse.

There are several things you can pull out of this book but the most obvious one is the classic example of a person who is so proud and stubborn that s/he is unable to accept love or give of it. That's the character of Hagar and like her, this is a novel you'll want to avoid because it's a very dour thing to contend with.

Darkhorse86 ... Read more

Product Description
In The Diviners, Morag Gunn, a middle aged writer who lives in a farmhouse on the Canadian prairie, struggles to understand the loneliness of her eighteen-year-old daughter.With unusual wit and depth, Morag recognizes that she needs solitude and work as much as she needs the love of her family.With an afterword by Margaret Atwood."Mrs. Laurence's [novel] is both poetic and muscular, and her heroine is certainly one of the more humane, unglorified, unpolemical, believable women to have appeared in recent fiction."--The New Yorker ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Untapping the Past
As it happens, I read this almost immediately after Alice Munro's novel about growing up in Canada, LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN, and the comparison is fascinating, reflecting the real lives of the two authors, although neither novel is strictly autobiographical.* Both feature young women who come of age during the 1940s, but Morag Gunn, Laurence's heroine, is half a decade older and a true child of the Depression. Munro's book is set entirely in Southern Ontario, but Morag grows up in the prairies, as Laurence herself did. Munro's novel, exquisitely compact in scale, stops when her protagonist leaves high school; Morag Gunn, in Laurence's more ambitious saga, leaves for college in Winnipeg, marries and moves to Toronto, then spends some years in self-imposed exile first in Vancouver and then in London, before returning to the Canadian countryside in a small riverside cabin in, guess where, Southern Ontario also. Morag seldom revisits her birthplace, the fictional Manawaka familiar from several of Laurence's other novels, yet the town is in her blood; the whole book is a proof that if, like Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again in person, you cannot escape doing so in your art.

One further comparison. Munro's book is essentially a collection of short stories, beautifully formed and effortlessly contained. Laurence's novel is a collection of stories also, but a rag-bag jumble with all the rough edges deliberately showing. For we are watching a writer at work. Morag, like her creator, is a novelist, gathering material for the book that we are reading. One of her neighbors is a water-diviner, dowsing for wells; the implication is that Morag is blessed with a similar gift, searching through her past, alert to the faint twitch that will signify the presence of life. Each of the eleven chapters begins with Morag in real time, dealing with her own feelings of incompletion at the same time as her hippie 19-year-old daughter Pique is in the process of leaving home to discover her own story. But the core of each chapter comes in the Snapshots, Memorybank Movies, stories, and ballads that take her back to her past. A true past? Well, maybe not. Losing her parents at a young age, Morag was brought up by the town's garbage collector, feeding her imagination on the tales of his Gaelic ancestors and her own. Throughout the book, we see the power of myth and new myths in the making. But Morag herself is real, achingly so. Even a male reader can feel her struggles with self-doubt and rejoice in her painful discovery of herself, her body, and her talent; women, however, will not merely feel for her -- they will KNOW her.

*What a lot of wonderful Canadian women novelists there are! Besides Laurence and Munro, I have recently read books by Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Nancy Huston, Frances Itani, Anne Michaels, Carol Shields, and Jane Urquhart, among others. Many of these writers -- Laurence and Urquhart especially -- seem to have found a resonance between the pioneers of older times and women of today, pioneering a new life in a modern world.

Very disappointing
I didn't like this book much. I found it confusing and boring, with little character development, and sort of a meandering story line that gets lost in a few places along the way.

I found that the story meandered and stagnated a bit, and didn't get caught up in any of the characters. I was not the least bit interested in what happens to Morag, and I must have tried five times to finish the book before finally getting through it.

As a Canadian, I've been told all my life that Margaret Laurence is one of our greatest treasures, and a quintessential Canadian author. Funny thing is, I *didn't* read this because I had to for school - I bought it at a yard sale. I personally feel I should have saved my quarter for something better.

I can't believe no one has heard of Laurence in the States.
This is one of my favorite books, and I just finished reading it.It's all about the characterization of Morag Gunn, a somewhat eccentric, but undeniably strong woman.Laurence evokes emotions like desperation and loneliness and confusion and even, yes, sexual desire, without resorting to either sentimental cliche or philosophical essays.Highly, highly recommended.

a Canadian classic
There are some spicy sex scenes, but it's hard to believe that this novel was called pornography when it was first published in 1974. Margaret Laurence got all kinds of praise and hate mail because of it, as well as disapproval from members of her congregation and people who knew her back home for writing "such stuff".

This story is a young prairie girl's search for real love, and in Morag Gunn we have the perfectly well-drawn believable figure of the independent young woman who defeats the odds and achieves the life she wants thanks to her strength of courage and perseverance. (...)

All Canadian Women Should Read This Book
I've read this book twice and I enjoyed it even more the second time. The characters are complex and interesting and their lives take unexpected twists and turns, making the story very realistic and very fascinating. The development of the storyline is such that you feel as if you are on the same journey as the characters, as the reader can't help to be emotionally connected to the little town and the main characters.

Laurence is a brilliant writer and this is her best work -- which is a big compliment since her other novels are incredible too.

I highly recommend this book, and especially to other Canadian women who will love Morag Gunn and relate to her life as a woman in Canada. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Fire-Dwellers
The Fire-Dwellers has been my introductory novel in the world of Margaret Laurence, and I have to say I'm hooked! The characters in the novel are interesting and dynamic. The book is written in a manner that challanges the reader's preconceptions of dialogue and narrative. A good read.

Margaret Laurence Recognizes the Extraordinary
Laurence recognizes the plight of married women, raising children and seeking passion.cleverly, the author weaves the story of Stacey as she tries desperately to communicate with her withdrawn husband.Relying on self-talk, and stumbling into an affair,she finally comes to realize that the ordinary life is filled with possibilities.

The Fire-Dwellers by Margaret Laurence: an excellent book
I read this book for an independent study, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Margaret Laurence always does an incredible job of creating characters that are very real, and that teach her readers to be empathetic toward other human beings. Stacey MacAindra is no exception. She is an accurate portrayal of an ordinary Canadian woman, wife and mother. Her story draws attention to many of the inner conflicts and challenges that ordinary people face every day that we often ignore or don't notice. The Fire-Dwellers is a very real story, and Margaret Laurence is right on in her description of the emotions and thoughts of Stacey and everyone in Canada who is like Stacey. ... Read more

Product Description
A thirty-four-year-old school teacher living with her mother, Rachel Cameron feels trapped in an environment of small-town deceit and pettiness--her own and that of others. She longs for contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Finally, by confronting both love and death, Rachel earns the freedom she desperately needs.

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, A Jest of God was also the basis of the movie Rachel, Rachel. "Mrs. Laurence tells [her story] unsparingly, with absolute authority, using her thorough understanding of Rachel to draw us into her anguish.We know Rachel, sympathize with her, and in a sense, become Rachel, so authentic is her voice. . . . A Jest of God has extraordinary clarity, beautiful detail, as well as the emotional impact of honest confession."--Joan J. Hall, Saturday Review

One of Canada's most accomplished writers, Margaret Laurence(1926-1987) was the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Governer General's Litarary Award for The Diviners and A Jest of God. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An amazing journey of a woman finally finding herself
At first I thought of Rachel as paranoid and on the edge of sanity; however, by the end of the novel she has found her self and her voice. Her thoughts and feelings towards her mother and sister are so realistic, evenif they seem unsettling at times. It was enlightening to be a part of herjourney towards self-discovery and strength.

Margaret Lawrence does it once again.
Although I find Margaret Lawrence to be an incredible author,all her books tend to be the same.Different people but always the same place, type of character, style. . . this is at least the case with all her booksin the Manawaka Series.Stone Angel was my favorite, A jest of God waspretty good though.

Entertaining!
After reading "The Diviners" by Margaret Laurence, I found "A Jest of God" more entertaining and true-to-life. The female protagonist Rachel was more believable and down to earth. The plot of homosexuality was realistic and daring.

Unforgettable and True
A Jest of God epitomises Margaret Laurence's focus on characters whose stories are usually never told. The protagonist, Rachel, is a spinster school-teacher in small town Manitoba.She is stifled both by her closed community and by internalising their pettiness. Rachel's inner-dialogue sets the claustophobic atmosphere, while also being funny, frustrating and moving.Laurence's portrait of an ordinairy woman coming to terms with herself and with surroundings is flawless and highly readable. ... Read more

Product Description
Nearly all of Laurence's works from Africa and Canada are critiqued in this volume. The essays highlight Laurence's innovative narrative styles, showing how her combinations of oral literary forms and unique shifts in tense and point of view help her achieve vivid character portrayals. In addition, viewing Laurence's prose as closely textured poetry, her use of language, theme, and image are carefully critiqued. The importance of Laurence's portrayal of women's experiences, most notably that of aging women, is viewed in a feminist framework. These new American perspectives on Laurence will be of interest to both scholars and students. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume investigates the past four decades of criticism devoted to two major female contemporary writers: the New Zealander Janet Frame, and the Canadian Margaret Laurence, author of A Jest of God. The first extensive study to compare the two, it considers early close readings meant to promulgate each writer's work, and traces the various influences of narrative, feminist, postmodernist, and postcolonialist theory on a wide-ranging selection of commentaries. The book also focuses on connections among writers, critics, and a country's mythologies of nationalism, and, of particular significance to Canada and New Zealand, how literatures and commentaries on it illustrate national and international uses of power. Throughout, Professor Irvine points to similarities between the writers' careers, their influence on the development of the literary histories of their respective countries, their ambivalent feelings about England, and, finally, their concern with certain marginalized groups, such as the Maoris. An extensive bibliography completes the volume. ... Read more

Product Description
Truly a classic by one ofCanada’s finest authors

Ten-year-old Sal is disappointed when she and her parents spend Christmas at hergrandmother’s house, instead of at home, like they did before Grandpa died. In order to pass the time, Sal explores the contents of an old trunk. Searching through the old photographs she comes across a little girl’s winter coat, tries it on, and finds herself transported into the past where she makes an unexpected connection to her heritage and her grandmother.

This model tale of time travel was one of Margaret Laurence’s few forays into children’s literature and has remained a favourite ofchildren of all ages. New art by the original illustrator makes this a beautiful book for Christmas and for all seasons. A special treatfor Margaret Laurence fans.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A must-have.
Magraret Laurence, The Olden Days Coat (Tundra, 1979)

Why do I continue to read kids' books at the age of thirty-six? In my more cynical moments, I think it's to increase the count on the number of books I read per year, But every once in a while, I stumble across something like Randall Jarrell's The Bat-Poet or Margaret Laurence's The Olden Days Coat, and these books remind me that things that are written for, published for, and marketed to the under-twelve set are sometimes able to combine the literary weight of the work of a great writer with that certain magic that is the exclusive province of the children's book.

The late Margaret Laurence is, of course, one of Canada's foremost authors, and left us on Earth with a body of her work that is, quite simply, stunning. From the perspective of overall quality and beauty, the complete corpus of Laurence's work is matched by that of few authors who write/wrote in the English language, living or dead.The Olden Days Coat, weighing in at a slim twenty-six pages (with roughly half of those full-page illustrations), is not just a short story; it is a distillation of Margaret Laurence's craft.

The story is a simple one, and oft-heard. Sal goes off to spend Christmas at her grandmother's house. While digging around in a chest of old things, she finds an old coat. When she puts it on, she's transported back in time, and meets a girl her own age. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going already; why finish? As with any plot that's well-used, there are all sorts of possibilities for the writing to slip into cliché. It never happens. Laurence is razor-sharp here, her prose sparkling as fiercely as it does from every page of The Diviners, her finest moment.

A fantastic piece of work, once that I'll be buying for my own children. Its only true failing is that I didn't want it to end. **** ½

magical
Written by one of Canada's best, the Olden Days Coat is the tale of a girls discovery of her Grandmothers trunk and her subsequent journey back in time to an"olden days" Christmas. Sal's adventure enables herto understand her grandmother better and cherish Christmas and her family ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An inspirational evaluation of Laurence's works
Written by an English teacher and lifelong friend of Canada's beloved, award-winning author Margaret Laurence, Alien Heart: The Life & Work Of Margaret Laurence is an inspirational evaluation of Laurence's works, drawing from insights into Laurence's life to foment a deeper understanding of her novels and short stories. Chapters follow Laurence from her girlhood to her passing in 1987, drawing deeply upon research as well as quotes and personal testimonies to weave the tapestry of her life. Enthusiastically recommended for fans and scholars of Laurence's books.

An inspirational evaluation of Laurence's works
Written by an English teacher and lifelong friend of Canada's beloved, award-winning author Margaret Laurence, Alien Heart: The Life & Work Of Margaret Laurence is an inspirational evaluation of Laurence's works, drawing from insights into Laurence's life to foment a deeper understanding of her novels and short stories. Chapters follow Laurence from her girlhood to her passing in 1987, drawing deeply upon research as well as quotes and personal testimonies to weave the tapestry of her life. Enthusiastically recommended for fans and scholars of Laurence's books.
... Read more

Product Description
Margaret Laurence is best known for her fiction set in Canada. Less well known is the work that resulted from the years she spent in Africa. Northern Somaliland in particular stimulated the deep understanding of human nature that permeates Laurence's subsequent work. Fiona Sparrow's in-depth study examines the foundations of Laurence's African writing, as well as Laurence's personal experiences in West Africa. ... Read more

Product Description

Over a period of forty years, from 1947 to 1986, Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman wrote to each other constantly. The topics they wrote about were as wide-ranging as their interests and experiences, and their correspondence encompassed many of the varied events of their lives. Laurence's letters - of which far more are extant than Wisman's - reveal much about the impact of her years in Africa, motherhood, her anxieties and insecurities, and her developement as a writer. Wiseman, whose literary success came early in her career, provided a sympathetic ear and constant encouragement to Laurence.

The editors' selection has been directed by an interest in these women as friends and writers. Their experiences in the publishing world offer an engaging perspective on literary apprenticeship, rejection, and success. The letters reveal the important roles both women played in the buoyant cultural nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s.

This valuable collection of previously unpublished primary material will be essential to scholars working on Canadian literature and of great interest to the general reading. The introduction contextualizes the correspondence and the annotations to the letters help to clarify the text. The Laurence-Wiseman letters offer a fascinating glimpse into the lives and friendship of two remarkable women whose personal correspondence was written with verve, compassion, and wit. ... Read more

Product Description
A stunning book that captures the spirituality and talent of one of Canada's most celebrated writers, Noelle Boughton's biography of Margaret Laurence communicates a great deal about the decency and complexity of both the author and Canadian culture. Like most authors, Margaret Laurence's work drew on the community in which she lived, and the culture of the area informed the tone and content of her work. This original work traces the spiritual core and growth of one of Canada's most powerful artists. Starting from her roots in a middle-class, United Church, small-town prairie milieu, this beautifully wrought book traces Laurence's connection with her home town and its people and explores the themes of community, spirituality and social justice as they were expressed in her life and work. This is an indispensable guide to the life and development of one of Canada's most treasured writers. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an engaging narrative that contains new and important findings about Laurence's life and career. This biography reveals the challenges, successes, and failures of the long apprenticeship that preceded the publication of the 'The Stone Angel', Laurence's first commercially successful novel. Donez Xiques demonstrates the importance of Margaret Laurence's early work as a journalist in her development as a writer and covers here return to Canada from Africa in the late 1950s. She details the significance of Laurence's 'Vancouver years' as well as the challenges of her year in London prior to settling at Elm Cottage in Buckinghamshire, when Laurence stood on the verge of success. The Margaret Laurence known to most people is a public figure of the 1960s and 1970s; matriarchal, matronly, and accomplished. The story of her early years in the harsh setting of the Canadian Prairies during the 1930s - years of drought and the Great Depression - and of her African years has never before been chronicled with the thoroughness and vividness that Xiques provides for the reader.Appended to this powerful new biography is a short story by Margaret Laurence that has never before been published and two other stories that have not been widely available. They indicate the range of her concerns and show a marked departure from her fiction in 'The Tomorrow-Tamer and Other Stories' and 'A Bird in the House'. Readers will benefit from the extensive research in this full and vibrant portrait of one of the most revered writers of twentieth-century Canadian literature. ... Read more