After a visiting pastor sings the old hymn that Hagar has impulsively perhaps mischievously asked of him, she has a further insight. As he sings of rejoicing, Hagar is overwhelmed with tears and thinks: I would have wished it. This knowing comes upon me so forcefully, so shatteringly, and with such a bitterness as I have never felt before.
I must always, always, have wanted that- simply to rejoice. How is it I never could? I know, I know. How long have I known? Or have I always known, in some far crevice of my heart, some cave too deeply buried, too concealed?
Every good joy I might have held, in my man or any child of mine or even in the plain light of morning, of walking the earth, all were forced to a standstill by some break of proper appearances- oh, proper to whom?
Even so, this is not a redemptive deathbed epiphany; Hagar is not remorseful about the kind words that she has withheld, but full of regrets that she had not allowed herself to feel joy. This book is also remarkable for the gorgeous prose, and though it was written in , it feels fresh and modern. A favourite passage, while Hagar is on the lam: If I cry out, who will hear me? Unless there is another in this house, no one. Some gill-netter passing the point might catch an echo, perhaps, and wonder if he'd imagined it or if it could be the plaintive voices of the drowned, calling through brown kelp that's stopped their mouths, in the deep and barnacled places where their green hair ripples out and snags on the green deep rocks.
Now I could fancy myself there among them, tiaraed with starfish thorny and purple, braceleted with shells linked on limp chains of weed, waiting until my encumbrance of flesh floated clean away and I was free and skeletal and could journey with tides and fishes.
It beckons a second only. Then I'm scared out of my wits, nearly. Stupid old woman, Hagar, baggage, bulk, chambered nautilus are you?
Shut up. In Survival A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature , Margaret Atwood quotes the following as the moment that Hagar transcends the CanLit tradition of characters as victims: I lie here and try to recall something truly free that I've done in ninety years. I can think of only two acts that might be so, both recent.
One was a joke - yet a joke only as all victories are, the paraphernalia being unequal to the event's reach. The other was a lie - yet not a lie, for it was spoken at least and at last with what may perhaps be a kind of love. I found it interesting that what appear to be acts of freewill in the novel view spoiler [ marrying Bram and then leaving him or running away to Shadow Point hide spoiler ] , must in Hagar's evaluation have been forced upon her by her pride.
At the end of her life, Hagar finally overcomes the victimhood that pride has forced onto her, and through the joke and the lie, finally acts in the best interest of others. Speaking of Hagar for the last time, is her son Marvin: "She's a holy terror," he says. Listening, I feel like it is more than I could now reasonably have expected out of life, for he has spoken with such anger and such tenderness.
When I think of Hagar, and her blocked bowels and her lack of joy and her failing memory and her nightly incontinence and her miserable treatment of the long-suffering daughter-in-law, Doris, it is entirely possible to think of her with a blend of anger and tenderness. Reading through some of the negative reviews here, I need to wonder at the inclusion the The Stone Angel on high school reading lists; perhaps readers need to be a little more connected with the failings of the body and the mind before they can appreciate the honesty of this book; perhaps it takes some degree of life experience to appreciate that you can like a book without liking the people in it.
How it irks me to have to take her hand, allow her to pull my dress over my head, undo my corsets and strip them off me, and have her see my blue veined swollen flesh and the hairy triangle that still proclaims with lunatic insistence a non-existent womanhood. Of course my little brother was embarrassed to have read that in high school, and somehow, I am embarrassed on Hagar's behalf that those lines can be read unsympathetically by anyone. View all 3 comments. Hagar Currie Shipley is a prickly, difficult person.
At ninety-years old, her fierce independence is butting against physical limitations; her intense pride has trouble dealing with reality. Laurence is not interested in making Hagar sympathetic to the reader and I have no problem with that.
The big reveal of how her younge Hagar Currie Shipley is a prickly, difficult person. View all 6 comments. Jan 22, Nicole Yovanoff rated it did not like it. I hated this book. I called it the 'Stoned Angel' because I think it would have been better if I were stoned on drugs at the time. Horrible boring read. Yes, its 'a Canadian classic,' but what does th I hated this book.
Yes, its 'a Canadian classic,' but what does that say about Canadian literature? Nov 11, Shane rated it really liked it. When you live to be 90, you will end up seeing a lot of life and losing a lot during it. Hagar Shipley is an unforgettable character; feisty, cruel, unrelenting and deathly honest.
She loves her wastrel younger s When you live to be 90, you will end up seeing a lot of life and losing a lot during it.
She loves her wastrel younger son but not her dull older one who looks after her well into his sixties. She deserts her husband, Bram, a not-too-successful farmer 14 years her senior, and only comes back to visit when he is dying. She in turn has had fate deal wicked blows to her: losing her mother at birth, her siblings during childhood; her storekeeper father leaves his estate to the town and not to his only surviving daughter, Hagar.
The novel alternates between Hagar in her ninetieth year, seeking to escape from being consigned to a nursing home by her older son Marvin and his wife Doris who are running out of energy to care for her, and her random memories of her past.
The story lines converge briefly when she is contemplating escape, in the present story, from the house she shares with Marvin and Doris, and in the former story, from Bram. The deterioration of her health and her mind is brilliantly drawn for her narrative starts to have gaps and becomes increasingly unreliable as the novel progresses, until she is finally consigned to a hospital after contracting pneumonia from running away unprotected.
And it is in hospital that Hagar, the stone angel, makes her way back, by accepting some truths about herself, making amends for her recalcitrance, giving people credit for what they have done, and reaching beyond herself to help others.
The writing is frank and does not pull any punches, even though the prose is poetic where warranted. The subject of aging and the challenges that it presents is thrust into our faces, and with our aging population, this book retains its currency today. Jan 15, Wendy rated it really liked it Shelves: jan , Just That - She is Memorable! She is witty, insightful, miserable and has both love and resentment for those closest to her.
I thoroughly enjoyed Margaret Laurence's depiction of a 90 yr old woman looking back on her life as she grudgingly adjusts to her final years. View all 8 comments. May 21, Kathleen rated it really liked it Shelves: women-writers , reading-women-challenge. Hagar Shipley is a mean, unappreciative, critical old woman, and I loved her.
Not at anyone, just that it happened that way. As they unfold, we discover what has hardened her, and we grieve for the mistakes she makes. Laurence writes beautifully. Margaret Laurence was unknown to me until now. The jokes of God. View all 7 comments. Hagar Shipley has earned the right to be curmudgeonly. Now 90 years old, she has already lived with her son Marvin and his wife Doris for 17 years when they spring a surprise on her: they want to sell the house and move somewhere smaller, and they mean to send her to Silver Threads nursing home.
This is o Hagar Shipley has earned the right to be curmudgeonly. This is one of those novels where the first-person voice draws you in immediately.
Hagar is harsh-tongued and bitter, always looking for someone or something to blame. Yet she recognizes these tendencies in herself and sometimes overcomes her stubbornness enough to backtrack and apologize.
Will everything stop when I do? Stupid old baggage, who do you think you are? It was a delight to experience this classic of Canadian literature. Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck. Like fine wine, there is literature that needs an acquired taste to be fully appreciated.
This is one of those books. The story is as simple as a red table wine, but the intricacies of the writing set it in a class of its own. This is a story that has been done time and again — an aged and unreliable narrator recalling their life.
She will not accede to leaving her own home, in which she is live Like fine wine, there is literature that needs an acquired taste to be fully appreciated. She will not accede to leaving her own home, in which she is lives with her docile son Marvin and his wife Doris who bears the brunt of caring for Hagar, for a care facility and does not recognize how much less independent she has become.
She has dementia and struggles with her short term memory but is able to recall and tell her past. So much is done well here. Laurence has a marvelous sense of word choice that makes all the scenes visual and all the characters knowable. Sentence structure is generally short and her language is usually common. And I rode in the black-topped buggy beside the man who was now my mare.
The Dreisers always ran to fat. And even when she feels gratitude or pleasure she is unable to express it to others.
One must note that her mother died young and she had little in the way of affectionate role-modeling from her father. She marries one man to escape another, but accepts that as her choice. She bears two sons. She does go off in search of a life of her own, but returns during his final days at a loss to explain why she is really there.
In that house of her marriage, she lives on to this final chapter in her life. This chapter in which dementia takes hold. This is a marvelous study of character, one of which may or may not be who she once was, but one who stubbornly hangs on to herself to the very, very end.
Feb 07, Jeanette rated it it was amazing. Incredible writing skill! She says more in a colloquial and sometimes brutal within both its intent and its semantics meaning phrasing than most authors crowd into an entire chapter. Hagar not going quietly into that good night!
It is a story about a woman who raged. And yet in my opinion there is not one real angry tirade in it! It is I think a different sort of "raging" that is being dealt with here in the story, as with the poem by Thomas. It is not the kind of raging that is with gritted teeth and defiance, [denial] it is the kind of raging that is mingled with profound sadness and regret Here is the realistic journey of a woman who has to come to terms with the fact that "what's going to happen can't be delayed indefinitely.
Voraciously, I read it. I found this to be a totally engrossing, believable tale By Kcorn As you can probably tell by some of the other reviews, this book will NOT be for everyone. If you're looking for a quick escape, lots of action or a strong romance, this is not the book you want. However, if you enjoy books that aren't your usual fare and are strong on psychological tension, this is an excellent choice. I absolutely loved this story of an elderly woman, a rather judgmental, cantankerous person.
I like novels that show how a person grows and changes and I find slow change to be most believable and true to life, as it is in this book. Many readers may have found Hagar Shipley's life to be rather mundane, even dull.
But I didn't - her marriage to a man she eventually saw as inferior and coarse, her relationship with her children, her desire to make a proper home and better herself - were all quite realistic to me.
As she becomes increasingly frail and dependent on her son and daughter-in-law, she also comes to see her life in a different way. I won't reveal more but I do urge you to read this one and stick with it. Odds are, you'll want to read more by the gifted author, Margaret Laurence. Was a deeply satisfying book to read. Please note that the tricks or techniques listed in this pdf are either fictional or claimed to work by its creator.
We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you. Some of the techniques listed in Cutting for Stone may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. The stone angel Item Preview. For print-disabled users. James by P. Hot Fifty Shades Darker by E.
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