Customer Reviews

Mister Sandman (Harvest Book)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barbara Gowdy, Mister Sandman (HBJ, 1996)

Mister Sandman was a Publishers' Weekly Best Book of 1996, and it's easy to see why. Gowdy's third novel (and fourth book) is an engaging look into a world the is both completely warped and so close to the surface of reality that sometimes it's hard to remember that what's on the page is fiction.

Mister Sandman is the story of the Canary family, who are your basic everyday family. At least, they would be if life were a David Lynch film. Gordon, the patriarch, is a closet homosexual in a house full of women. (Perhaps it's more odd that he isn't a transvestite than it would be if he were.) His wife Doris is exploring her own enjoyment of the members of the fairer sex. They have three children: Sonja, fat, housebound by choice, and rich from her job as a pin clipper; Marcia, somewhat nymphomaniacal, able to converse with the aphasic; and Joan, dropped on her head as an infant, considered brain-damaged by her doctors and family but actually a genius. Joan, we find out in the first few sentences, is actually Sonja's daughter, but for the sake of propriety (Joan is born in the late fifties), she's passed off as one of Gordon and Doris'.

The book looks at the life of the family, mostly as it relates to Joan, but also in other snatches at various times in their lives (Sonja's seduction by Joan's father, Gordon's lovesickness over a redheaded plumber, etc.). Joan's inability to speak and propensity to spend her time in small dark places makes her the perfect confessor, and we spend our time snickering at the revisions the pentitents make when they get to the alter. Joan, though, is a bit too smart for them, as the book spends its time making clear. How she ends up making it clear is truly a beautiful scene, and quite worthy of the accolades from PW. I don't think it would be too much of a plot spoiler to say that the book's climax takes on Biblical proportions.

Gowdy's reputation in America didn't start growing until the novel after this, The White Bone. Thus, some Americans who are already familiar with her may have missed this little gem, I urge you to take a step back and give it a look. Those unfamiliar with Gowdy who like their family sagas more insane than dysfunctional are sure to get a kick out of it. Highly recommended. ****

This is an amazing book! I have read it at least six times. The characters are so strange and bizare but yet so real and human. I could not put this book down. The most facinating chapter is the one that describes how Joan, a mute savant, sees the world. Prepare yourself, it's a strange tale but well worth the read!

I was suggested this book by Amazon's recommendations engine and then was convinced by all the 5 star reviews to add it to my wish-list. So then I got if for Christmas and finally got to it a couple weeks ago.

I wouldn't call it a waste of time. There are some very funny parts (mostly in the beginning and the end) and it's definitely unique. But... the story didn't really hold together well for me. It was more like a bunch of short stories set in the same place, as Gowdy takes one character at a time and exposes their strange (though I'm sure more common than most people think) lives. I wasn't disturbed by the amount of sexual material in the book but anyone that thinks this book is about some cute, angelic child should definitely beware.

Another reviewer mentioned purpose and resolution. I would have to agree, the ending didn't really explain much or give you any idea about the future of the family members. I don't think there really was a point Gowdy was trying to get across, unless it was "life is stranger than it looks at a glance".

In this beautifully written novel, the reader is introduced to each member of the Canary family. Early on it becomes clear that a great deal of how this unconventional family functions is through deceit. At first, it seems like this is a family doomed to destruction and angst. Afterall, the truth can only be buried so long. And, don't most contemporary novels featuring highly dysfunctional families end sadly?

Happily, in "Mister Sandman", what ultimately shines through each character's obvious flaws is a genuine love, protection and devotion to each other that is endearing and comical. Joan, the family's ethereal and mute youngest member, becomes the sounding board to whom the rest of the family divulges their secrets. She is a silent observer, a gravitational force that pulls the family inward and keeps it together. Later, she is also the catalyst for moving everyone together towards greater honesty with themselves and each other.

In Nancy Pearl's "BookLust", "Mister Sandman" is recommended as a "Coming Out" novel. Gowdy's story is indeed frankly sexual. But whatever a reader's comfort level with honest sexuality, I have seldom read a book with stronger characterizations, whose every sentence - nee, every word - is purposeful, thoughtful, and necessary to the story.

Though this is a family inherently averse to truth, it is their duplicity that gives them authentic dimensionality. While their dishonesty is never overtly approved of, neither is it the means to the Canary's destruction.

"Mister Sandman" reminds me of John Irving's early books minus the angst. I definitely want to read more of Gowdy's books. I recently purchased "The White Bone", a story told from the perspective of an elephant. With such far-reaching literary abilities, Gowdy deserves to become better-known in the United States.

"Mister Sandman" was an absolute pleasure to read. Despite such a vastly odd cast of characters and strange family mix, this is an uplifting story of a family whose devotion to each other rises above everything else.

"They could be a family spending a day at the beach together. If they were on a beach. If it was day."

I first came upon this book when I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Gowdy speak. Two paragraphs in to her reading, I knew this was a novel of extraordinary humour ... and delicious weirdness. The Canary family is odd - Mom's an actress, Dad can't bear to come out of the closet, the eldest daughter bobby pins her way to emotional strength and independence, the younger daughter is too smart to survive her family with her sanity entirely intact and Joan (the baby) is, well, unusual. Joan however becomes the lynchpin to keeping this family together and, at the same time, giving all of her family members a chance at independence.

Barbara Gowdy is a master of the weird. This is a book that I handed to 15 people and they either swallowed it whole - often finishing it in one orgy of late night reading - or gave up sometime after Mom's escapade with "Queen for a Day". (You'll have to read it.) Give it a shot - it'll be painless. Trust me.

Mary Henricksen (threescr@istar.ca) Vancouver, Canada

This book is fantastically quirky in a way which blends familial strangeness, hilarity, and utter human empathy to create a mini-masterpiece of many fabulous characters, their loves, secrets, lies, and travails. There are few books I find myself returning to my bookshelves to read each year, and this one is among the few. It never ceases to entertain me! If you enjoy quirky seriocomedy, pick this up!

Gowdy has quite an imagination. This is the most dysfunctional family I've read about (right up there with "Fall on Your Knees"). There is homosexuality, promiscuity, lies, secrets, and the silent Joan, who is the youngest daughter, thought to be brain damaged but extremely intelligent, and aware of her families betrayals in her own way.

I am still trying to decide if I liked this book. The characters were interesting and they did draw my interest. But the story is way out there...certainly not a mainstream read. Gowdy's style confused me a bit at first by changing timelines often, and once that settled down I could follow the plot much easier.

An interesting and somewhat shocking read...not sure that I would recommend it to others.

Barbara Gowdy's Mister Sandman is a wonderful find. It is amazing to discover how much fun and quirky the book and the characters are and, yet, somehow the writing always reaches deeper just when the reader does not expect it. The book creates emotion out of chaos and pieces together a novel of the heart that a lesser writer would have made straight forward and senimental. The author has simply made it strange turning into unusual turning into delightful turning into moving and then coming back again. These are characters that are hard to forget, particulary the baby Joan, a truly unique creation. It is great to find a Canadian author of such talent.

This is an amazing book! It's well-crafted, funny, sad, sensitive, mystical- all of the elements of the story come together for an ending that is perfection! This is a novel EVERYONE should read because it will change the way you look at "ordinary people". I cannot rave about it enough!

I picked up Mister Sandman at the library around three years ago (paperback version)I was through in about a day.All I can say is that this is one of the most bueatiful books I have ever read (let's keep in mind that my family calls me bookworm-so I must have read quite a few!)It stays with you after reading it -kind of like a freindly ghost...little incidences will crop up at random and I'm left racking my brains ,wondreing where that came from....