THE STONE ANGEL

by Margaret Laurence ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1964

This is the first of three books by a Canadian all to be published simultaneously, and all reviewed in this issue (the third, which is non-fiction, on a later page). It is an expression of the publisher's great respect for this writer... In this story of a woman's lifelong struggle out of emotional isolation, Mrs. Laurence deals with intrafamilial problems, as against the intercultural questions in her short stories that follow. At the close of her life Mrs. Hagar Shipley wanly surveys herself. In the home of her son Marvin and his wife Doris, Hagar finds herself an irritating and irritated encumbrance intending to fight the selling of her house and the nursing home to her last breath. The memories crowd back on the elderly woman- her childhood in a farming community in Canada; her marriage against the wishes of her shrewd, domineering father, to the rough, vulgar Bram Shipley; the boyhood of her two sons -- loyal plodding Marvin and John, the son she loved. Distraught and confused the old woman escapes from Marvin and Doris and wanders Lear fashion, through fields and woods remembering -- leaving Bram, raising John, her return and Bram's death, and her interventions in John's love affair which led to John's violent death. It is not until the final moments of her life that Hagar reaches out to those around her and finds the love she had never been able to give... A fine portrait of a fierce old woman and the lives she dominated and diminished.

Pub Date: June 15, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION