Stone Angel (Phoenix Fiction S.) (New Canadian Library)

by Margaret Laurence

Hagar Shipley, a proud and irascible nonagenarian, retreats in the face of her approaching death and the bitter squabbling of her son and his wife to reflect on her past - her childhood marriage to tough-talking Bram Shipley, her two sons, the harshness of farm life on the prairie, her own failures and the failures and betrayals of others. A bloody minded and independent woman to the end, she embarks on a final wild escapade.

• ISBN10: 1322335079
• ISBN13: 9781322335070
• Publish Date: 1 January 1900
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 3 June 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: University of Chicago Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 319
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

3.5 stars

Margaret Laurence writes beautifully and I thought Hagar was an incredibly interesting character, but I didn't find this book nearly as compelling or fully-fleshed as The Diviners. Still a really enjoyable read, but I couldn't help but compare it a bit unfavourably to Laurence's final novel, which is truly wonderful.

[brokentune]

3.5*

The question I have is: Would I have read and enjoyed The Stone Angel if it had not been considered a Canadian classic and if a RL friend of mine did not highly recommend it?

Well, I have read it, and I can see why it is considered a classic. There is so much symbolism in this book, you can draw classroom material for years from it. And of course, it is always nice to read a story with a strong female lead - and you hardly get any stronger female leads than Hagar. Tho, of course, one could argue that "strong" and "obnoxious" are not the same, and that Hagar's pride and stubbornness are more of a weakness than a strength.

But was the book enjoyable?

I can't say I loved it. For all it's metaphorical word play and stoicism and irony - Hagar was pretty unlikeable, the characters around her were not that likable either, but I did admire the sass and gumption that the characters brought up in dealing with each other.

I'll probably give Laurence's other books in this cycle a miss, tho.