Clara Callan

Rating:
Summary: Very simple story line, very complex repercussions
Review: Clara is the good daughter who, after her father's death, stays in the family home, keeps plugging at her job as schoolteacher, plays her piano, composes a little poetry, and writes long letters to her sister Nora (the bad daughter) and long entries in her journal. The book is composed of those writings, as well as some from her sister and a friend, who are in New York living the high life.
Clara's quiet life in a small Canadian town (read: everyone knows your business and makes it theirs) is shattered when she takes a walk at dusk: she is raped by a drifter, gets pregnant, goes to her sister Nora in NY, and has an abortion. Returning to Canada, she picks up her life as tho nothing happened.
Then she meets a married man in a movie theater and becomes his lover. The story of their affair and its aftermath occupies the last part of the book and is the framework for Clara examining her past, her options, and her future.
An elegant and quiet book, and a very, very deep one with a heartbreaking Prologue.
Definitely worth a read, and don't hurry thru it; it demands some pondering.

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful book
Review: I usually don't like books in diary/journal and letter form, but this book is the great exception. These characters who live in the 1930's deal with many issues that are still hot topics today: rape, homosexuality, extra-marital relationships, abortion, and more. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Rating:
Summary: Masterful Storyteller
Review: Richard B. Wright has written a marvelous story of two sisters who grew up in a small Canadian town. The time is the 1930's, and the author is able to bring alive the times, the movies, the newspapers, the famous people, the politics, and has been able to weave these events into the lives of the characters in the book. The author received the Canadian Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for this novel.

The story is told through the two voices of Clara and Nora Callan mostly in letter format. Letter format has not been a favorite of mine, but the author brings these women to life in a extraordinary manner.

Clara is a school teacher and lives alone in her deceased father's home. Clara was her father's favorite, and seems to be a lot like him, frugal and conservative. She is prone to think of excuses why she should not have a telephone or a radio. Clara is a lover of books and reads voraciously. And, Clara writes poetry, not the kind of poetry her family or friends would appreciate. However, she expresses her poetry to us, the readers in a compelling narrative. She leads a fairly ordinary existence, but then something happens that requires all of her strength and perserverance and this changes her entire life.

Nora had more of a dream for her life. She left the small Canadian town for the big, bright lights of New York City. Nora found a job in radio very quickly and began her glamorous life. She soon had a job on a soap opera that became very popular, and she played the part of a beloved character. Her Canadian town is very proud of her- the young girl who made good.
She has several men in her life, but not the right kind. Either they are married or not the marrying kind. Life in the city that is so exciting becomes more humdrum, but she maintains that allusion of mystery .

Evelyn is a friend of Nora's. She is an author and pens the scipts for Nora's radio show. They become good friends even though Evelyn is a lover of women and Nora a lover of men. Evelyn is very well paid for her job and lives extravagantly- Nora is often the lucky recipient while meeting the rich and the famous. Both sisters come to love Evelyn for her kindness and generosity, and she becomes a prime mover throughout their lives.

Each woman has her tale to tell and brings with her the people she meets. Even though the lives of these women are disclosed, their characters are brought to life without deep psychological probing. These are people who are so ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. The twists and turns of life are fully revealed and so rewarding in this marvelous book. prisrob