It is the summer of 1959, and in a prairie town in Saskatchewan, Alec Monkman waits for his estranged daughter to come home, with the grandson he has never seen. But this is an uneasy reunion. Fiercely independent, Vera has been on her own since running away at nineteen – first to the army, and then to Toronto. Now, for the sake of her young son, she must swallow her pride and return home after seventeen years. As the story gradually unfolds, the past confronts the present in unexpected ways as the silence surrounding Vera’s brother is finally shattered and the truth behind Vera’s long absence revealed. With its tenderness, humour, and vivid evocation of character and place, Homesick confirms Guy Vanderhaeghe’s reputation as one of Canada’s most engaging and accomplished storytellers.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Canadian writer Vanderhaeghe ( Man Descending ) here examines the alienation plaguing three generations of a stiff-necked provincial family. In the late 1950s, widow Vera Miller returns home to her elderly father Alec in Saskatchewan after an absence of 17 years. Her teenage son Daniel has been getting out of hand--he is the cause of their homecoming. Once bitter because her father forced her to quit school to care for her younger, motherless brother Earl, proud Vera now takes a job as a movie usher while her son struggles to make friends and turns to his increasingly dotty grandfather for comfort. Daniel learns from Alec that Earl, whose whereabouts are unknown to his sister, died some years ago of meningitis while hospitalized for a mental breakdown. Told in alternating voices and flashbacks, the narrative does not always hang together, and skimpy characterization sometimes renders Vera, the novel's emotional center, shrill and unsympathetic. However, the author's skillful depiction of the growing relationship between Daniel and Alec is warm and real, as is the gradual breakdown of barriers between father and daughter. The novel ultimately succeeds as a quiet, moving story of family forgiveness.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Homesick is one of those books you don’t want to put down and one that haunts you long after you have. . . . It is not just good, it is wise and compassionate.…”
–Edmonton Journal
“Vanderhaeghe has the uncanny ability to bring characters to life with searing fidelity.…Homesick is a powerful and moving novel.”
–Globe and Mail
“It is a fine, rare accomplishment.”
–Books in Canada
“He skillfully interweaves the lives of one of the most contrary families in literature, placing them right up there with Faulkner’s Snopse family for eccentricity and misplaced pride.…”
–Halifax Chronicle Herald
“One has only to read the first page of Guy Vanderhaeghe’s Homesick to see why his books have garnered him international awards and the reputation as one of Canada’s most promising young writers.…Vanderhaeghe’s lush, highly readable prose brings the setting and the characters to vivid, sparkling life. They could be our neighbours – they could be us. This is the story of any family that has ever let pride and stubbornness stand in the way of a fulfilling relationship.”
–Regina Leader-Post
“If great art is that which holds a mirror up to nature, as was once said, then Homesick is great art.”
–Daily News (Halifax)
“[Vanderhaeghe’s characters] lift themselves by pride and love from the ordinariness of their world.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Vanderhaeghe has an unerring eye for the prairie landscape and a shrewd ear for the ironies of small-town conversation.…He balances his dramatization of the cycle of life with exuberant storytelling.…”
–London Free Press
“Beautifully written…Vanderhaeghe writes in a spare, poetic prose that is deceptively simple. He used his medium very effectively to capture both the icy harshness and the warmth of family life.…Homesick is an unexpectedly powerful work.…His extraordinary talents deserve wide recognition.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“His stories and novels are character studies par excellence.…”
–Andreas Schroeder
“Guy Vanderhaeghe writes about what he knows best: people, their sense of mortality, their difficulty in being good during a difficult time.…The dialogue and the characters are eclectic and real.”
–Vancouver Sun
“Homesick is a compelling yarn about the intensity of family feelings and relationships and how all too often it’s what isn’t, rather than what is said that counts the most.”
–Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon)
–Edmonton Journal
“Vanderhaeghe has the uncanny ability to bring characters to life with searing fidelity.…Homesick is a powerful and moving novel.”
–Globe and Mail
“It is a fine, rare accomplishment.”
–Books in Canada
“He skillfully interweaves the lives of one of the most contrary families in literature, placing them right up there with Faulkner’s Snopse family for eccentricity and misplaced pride.…”
–Halifax Chronicle Herald
“One has only to read the first page of Guy Vanderhaeghe’s Homesick to see why his books have garnered him international awards and the reputation as one of Canada’s most promising young writers.…Vanderhaeghe’s lush, highly readable prose brings the setting and the characters to vivid, sparkling life. They could be our neighbours – they could be us. This is the story of any family that has ever let pride and stubbornness stand in the way of a fulfilling relationship.”
–Regina Leader-Post
“If great art is that which holds a mirror up to nature, as was once said, then Homesick is great art.”
–Daily News (Halifax)
“[Vanderhaeghe’s characters] lift themselves by pride and love from the ordinariness of their world.”
–Ottawa Citizen
“Vanderhaeghe has an unerring eye for the prairie landscape and a shrewd ear for the ironies of small-town conversation.…He balances his dramatization of the cycle of life with exuberant storytelling.…”
–London Free Press
“Beautifully written…Vanderhaeghe writes in a spare, poetic prose that is deceptively simple. He used his medium very effectively to capture both the icy harshness and the warmth of family life.…Homesick is an unexpectedly powerful work.…His extraordinary talents deserve wide recognition.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“His stories and novels are character studies par excellence.…”
–Andreas Schroeder
“Guy Vanderhaeghe writes about what he knows best: people, their sense of mortality, their difficulty in being good during a difficult time.…The dialogue and the characters are eclectic and real.”
–Vancouver Sun
“Homesick is a compelling yarn about the intensity of family feelings and relationships and how all too often it’s what isn’t, rather than what is said that counts the most.”
–Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Please read this book...,
By shannon miller (Vancouver BC Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Homesick (Hardcover)
Without going into the actual storyline too deeply, I will only say that this book is beautiful and sad and I think accurately portrays the conflicting feelings of people who love and resent their family members. The main character in the book is Vera, who has left her father and disabled brother in Saskatchewan to forge a new life for herself in Toronto and ends up returning feeling not quite defeated but definitely weathered. Her relationships with her son and her aging father are complicated and recognizable and the ending was surprising as the past comes back at first to hurt and then to heal. I grew up in Saskatchewan and many familiar characters of the small town are present in the story...it is worth reading if for no other reason than to visit the prairie landscape, but the characters will pull you in as well.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Canada's Best,
By Jim Priebe (Mississauga, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: HOMESICK (Hardcover)
The story is a model of conflict between generations. Vera, the protagonist, headstrong daughter, wonderful mother, seargant!, good wife can be admired and detested, depending on the scene. But she is one of the great characters of Canadian fiction. Alec, the grandfather, will be mainly disliked for his habits and assumptions about women, but he can be understood as well. Daniel, son and grandson, will be liked by almost all, even though he has no outstanding "manly" qualities, he loves his grandfather, and is loyal to the end. Characterization marks great fiction. Here it is.
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