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Better Than Life
 
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Better Than Life [Paperback]

Margaret Gunning (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Price: $14.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

September 1, 2003
A heart-warming and humorous novel about living life to the fullest and the joy and frustration of human relationships. The novel celebrates all the blessings and bruisings of blood ties, and explores the emotional misfires that can hamper the most precious of human connections with poignancy and wry humour.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Gunning was born in Chatham, Ontario. Her broadly varied writing career began with the publication of a humour column in the 'Hinton Parklander' in 1985. Since then she has published hundreds of articles in periodicals from Victoria to Montreal. Her poetry has been published in blue buffalo, 'Room of One's Own', 'Prism Internationa'l, and 'Capilano Review'. She has also published short-fiction and appeared on numerous radio and television programs. This is her first novel. She currently lives in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: NeWest Press (September 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1896300693
  • ISBN-13: 978-1896300696
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,667,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret is the author of The Glass Character, a novel about the life and times of silent screen comedian Harold Lloyd. She is currently seeking representation and a publisher for this novel, which she loved researching and writing and believes is her best work to date.

A published novelist since 2003, Margaret (http://members.shaw.ca/margaret_gunning/) is a seasoned writer who has published her work in a variety of venues (columns, newspaper articles, poetry, short fiction and book reviews). Her first published novel, Better Than Life (NeWest Press, 2003) received excellent reviews, with the Edmonton Journal calling it "fiction at its finest" and the Vancouver Sun naming it as a worthy contender for the Leacock Award.

This was followed in 2005 by another novel, Mallory (Turnstone Press), a harrowing tale of a social misfit ostracized and bullied by her peers until she finds dubious acceptance in a group of teenagers living on the fringes of the law. Of the many reviews this novel received, not one was negative.

In addition to The Glass Character, Margaret has written a book of poetry (The Red Diary, based on the diary of Anne Frank) and Bus People, a novel about the inhabitants of Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. She hopes these books will soon find a place on the shelf beside The Glass Character and welcomes inquiries from agents and publishers.

 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky story about family and small town life, October 6, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Better Than Life (Paperback)
Better Than Life is a great read for anyone who has a family that's less than perfect. The Connar family is both hilarious and realistic as it prepares for Min's 90th birthday party. Aubrey, the son living at home with Min, has to contend with her excentricities and tendency to 'die' every once in a while.

The small town they live in is filled with characters and secrets and stories that will engage the reader as the story progresses to the big birthday party. Jurgen Gothe sums it up very well on the back cover:

"What could be better than this? The finer points of Belgian doughnuts, fried chicken wars, papier-maché squirrels; small town intrigue, outrage and inter-municipal plottery; great convoluted characters and relationships, not a little looniness and quite a lot of real pain. Part colour cartoon, part small town soap opera, part neurosis case book. Sum total: big time winner."

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5.0 out of 5 stars Do we really want a Second Coming?, September 11, 2011
This review is from: Better Than Life (Paperback)
You live in a hick Canadian town that's all atwitter because a man named Bob showed up one day without warning. Everybody calls Bob "Jesus" behind his back because, well, he looks and acts like Jesus, bringing animals back from the dead, dramatically changing people's lives for the better with just a few well-chosen words and, of course, making the local minister nervous.

If that's not enough to worry about, you're a recovering drunk and you live with your 89-year-old drama-queen mother who feigns death now and again to keep you attentive. She's planning a huge wing ding in the town's park for her upcoming birthday, inviting relatives from everywhere, including Ireland, as well as your siblings, whom you hate.

Meanwhile, your twin brothers with whom you haven't spoken in decades live in a neighboring hick town, which is planning a huge celebration of its own on the same day as the birthday bash.

As "Better than Life" rollicks and rolls along, building suspense with characters who just might be progeny of an accidental merging of hallucinations of Tom Robbins and Flannery O'Connor, you, also feeling a deep dread from Bob's apparent special interest in you, start wondering if it would hurt much to hop off the wagon, just for a spell.

Margaret Gunning has given us a mystery-suspense novel that's leavened with her constant sardonic and often gut-splitting wit. Her humor comes through so naturally that while it can be biting and cynical it never seems contrived and is more often than not self-deprecating.
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