Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully sensitive, magical novel
Review: This is one of the best novels I've read in recent years. Cleverly structured, the book was magical, haunting, stunning, mysterious. A brilliant first novel from Gail Anderson-Dargatz, and I look forward to reading more of her novels. A truly compelling book which combines elements of rich poetry, story telling, myths, and fabulous cooking recipes!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Canadian version of South American "magic realism"
Review: I'm writing from southeastern Ontario, Canada.
Just finished "The Cure for Death by Lightning" and tonight, my bookclub (12 people) will discuss it.
The book strongly reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende's "magic realism" style.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As a Canadian, I wish the American reviewers would get more specific - this story happened in a specifed place which is well noted - not "western Canada."
If the Australian, reviewing at this site could name the province as British Columbia couldn't the much-closer Americans?
Rating:
Summary: Magical Realism, Translated/Transported North
Review: A very interesting first novel by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, just out in quality paperback. It's the story of 15-year-old Beth Weeks, daughter of a farming family in western Canada in the early years of WWII. Along with the commonplace grittiness of their farm life (the endless chores, the birth and death of livestock, the loneliness), there's also the oddities of small-town life, with its eccentrics, tragedies, property feuds, marriages, funerals, and festivals...and given the fact that Beth's dominating, temperamental father seems to be suffering from a combination of depression and psychosis, the Weeks family's popularity is not too high in town just now. There's also a strong undercurrent of Native American spirituality and mythology running through the novel---at times it's the only explanation for an event, unrational as that might sound. One might almost think of this as a Canadian version of a Latin American "magical realism" novel: translate tropic to temperate, jungle to prairie, Spanish heritage to British...The title originates with the scrapbook kept by Beth's mother, a hodgepodge of recipes, Christmas cards, household and family lore, observations, and agonies, a sort of collaged diary of this woman's private life. I enjoy novels told in first-person narration, if the narrator's voice is an interesting one---and Beth is one of the more interesting voices I've come across lately.
Rating:
Summary: Country Style coming of age story
Review: A year in the life of Beth Weeks, a 15/16 year old girl growing into a young woman craving love and relationship, living in an extremely dysfunctional family and in hard circumstances. Set in the 1940's in a British Columbia rural area, the family ekes out a living on their farm, and Beth has a full share of the workload. The story is told as seen through her eyes in a straight forward as it happens fashion and as such does not offer solutions, explanations or even blame, this is a teenager telling about the only life she knows. I found parts of her story heartbreaking but she does not, she does not have any other world to compare hers to and besides that many of the other characters are far worse off than Beth. The father has a metal plate in his head from the war and is unstable, crude and has problems with anger, he is abusive to his family and workers, and forces himself on Beth sexually. The mother seems even worse to me, for while she loves her daughter, she pretends not to see what is going on with the father, refuses to believe her daughter when Beth is attacked and stripped by other kids at school, and thinks she is faking problems with her arm when Beth is struck by lightning. Perhaps the mother is incapable of protecting Beth as she herself grew up as a victim of incest also. There are a few good relationships, with her brother Dan, and Billy, but most of the people in this novel struck me as bleak and/or ignorant. Did like the mother's scrapbook and recipes, also the First Nations people stories were great. Beth's ability to keep seeking love and ability to see the beauty in nature made me feel she'll make it out of there one day, would be interesting to see what became of Beth by the time she was 30 or so.
Rating:
Summary: Dreamy imagery
Review: Although an unsatisfying ending, this book has beautiful dreamy imagery. It takes the reader on a journey into Beth's mind. She is an extraordinary character, a true butterfly with a broken wing
Rating: 
Summary: Is there a book about "The Cure for Disturbace by a Novel"?
Review: I am a grade 11 student who was required to read a book from a list of award-winning titles. I had inquired to several people about their thoughts on the book. Overall, they said the book was an easy read, and that i should do fine. Upon being submersed in the plot (or real lack there of...) I became (very easily) disturbed by the trashy, and wasteful feel of the events. I did keep on reading the book to the point of completion. I felt the same way as another reader, that the book was hard to put down although it was not that amusing. I thought that the book was very plotless and that maybe the thoughts of the people in the book were those of the author...I felt very intrusive as well as intruded upon. Although there were some serious issues, they were poorly represented in this story. When I read "To Kill a Mockingbird", I was touched by the storyline. When I read "The Cure For Death By Lightning", I felt like I was mentally raped. When the group discussions started in my English Class, I found it very hard to discuss theme, plot and conflicts in the story. I found myself giving a "disclaimer" before I even started my book talk. I did, however, find it easy to talk about the aura of waste in the novel... like the dead chickens, rotten perfume, the dog "$#!t", and the way colours seemed to fade in my imagination due to lack of pleasant imagery. To me, the book was compelling and thought provoking, although very disturbing and intrusive.
Rating:
Summary: A bad book
Review: I am not complaining about a novel dealing with grim issues. That is a perfectly good thing for a novel to do. But Anderson-Dargatz seems to throw any controversial subject in just for the hell of it. Lesbianism, insanity, rape, bestiality - this novel has it all! And she does a bad job of dealing with those issues too. For example, the main character's father becomes incredibly and dangerously mentally unstable. He becomes violent and hot-tempered, when previously he had been a good father and husband. Anderson-Dargatz writes about the fear he generates, but there is no sense that his family members would and should *miss* the man he used to be. Beth doesn't ever seem to miss her father. Likewise, her mother doesn't ever seem to miss her husband. He's a monster now, and that's that. "Shallow" is the word that springs to mind.
Rating:
Summary: raspberries hanging like nipples
Review: I bought this wonderfully original book completely by accident. I'm so glad! Gail Anderson-Dargatz's writing is glorious, sensual and extremely - fulfilling. Her imagery and analogies (like the one above) are surprising and rewarding. For some reason I am reminded of the film "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" I don't know why, and I DO hate such comparisons - perhaps it is the atmospherics of the story: warm kitchen scenes and homebaked pound cake recipes. But don't be fooled, there are scarey bits too. Want to know how to catch coyote? Read this book
Rating:
Summary: slippery and sensuous
Review: I found this book in the Englsh-language section of a bookstore in Rome, Italy. What a great find! I spent an entire day of my vacation reading. Anderson-Dargatz incorporates hauntingly delicate prose in a tale of anguish, abuse, terror, and finally redemption. I thought Beth's sexual confusion was handled beautifully; in an atmosphere tense with straied and repressed desire,Beth stumbles along as well as she is able.
Rating:
Summary: slippery and sensuous
Review: I found this book in the Englsh-language section of a bookstore in Rome, Italy. What a great find! I spent an entire day of my vacation reading. Anderson-Dargatz incorporates hauntingly delicate prose in a tale of anguish, abuse, terror, and finally redemption. I thought Beth's sexual confusion was handled beautifully; in an atmosphere tense with straied and repressed desire,Beth stumbles along as well as she is able.
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