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SparklingPlug 8 months ago

Stone Angel

Reviews on Amazon

• 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.
• 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. Handy An 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 <
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  >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. <
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  >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. <
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  >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. <
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  >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. <
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  >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. <
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  >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. <
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  >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) <
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  >"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." <
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  >As with most people, Hagar straddles uneasily between her insight into herself and her ingrained habits and responses. <
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  >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. <
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  >Robin Friedman
• 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. <
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  >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. <
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• 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. <
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  >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. <
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  >Darkhorse86
• This is essential CanLit 101. <
  >Iconic! <
  >For the longest time I have intended to read Margaret Laurence, and this is where I have started. I now know that I will continue on and read more of her work, especially the other Manawaka books in the series. <
  >I think we are looking at some essential Canadian literature here, and yet, nearly every high school student from St John's to Victoria would rise up and say "What? Are you nuts?" As much as this book is inflicted upon the high-schoolers of Canada, it sure has not gained a welcome reception by that age group! For the Canadian teenager, seeing The Stone Angel on the English syllabus has become the equivalent of.... hmmm what would one say? Having a radio that is locked on the CBC station? <
  >I believe this is because The Stone Angel is a book that is all about the "interior" and to truly love the book the reader must have an appreciation of the life processes involved in becoming an elderly person. From start to finish we are on the inside of this character Hagar Shipley. It is not the realm of the exciting pace and involved plotline. This book is rather a very somber, brooding, introspective look at a proud and uncompromising woman in her nineties. She is a woman who does not (in the slightest) want to succumb to the realities, adjustments, and inconveniences of aging and dying. As she faces the combined trauma of diminished health and loss of meaningful relationships, she has to come to terms with who she really is. <
  >How far will her incessant pride and irritable crankiness get her in this last year of her life? How can she escape from those who try to make it all easier for her? Will she confess her unmitigated (and inevitable) need of others... of those who truly, and undauntingly, care for her well-being? Will she break down or remain haughty? <
  >Laurence is simply brilliant in that she weaves a seamless web between the present and the past, between Hagar's current experience and her memories. <
  >It is not easy, the transition[s] that we who will live on into old age will have to make if we are to succeed at being old. This book pulls no punches with how difficult the process can be, especially for the type "A" personality. <
  >It is no accident that the book begins with the lines from Dylan Thomas: <
  >Do not go gentle into that good night. <
  >Rage, rage against the dying of the light. <
  >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... yes, anger too I suppose, but anger only because one has to leave behind so much of what one loves. <
  >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." <
  >I think the book is somewhat of a masterpiece. Voraciously, I read it. <
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