Three Nova Scotia women, each of a different generation, take turns narrating lives spent mostly behind the counter of their family's general store in this debut novel by short story writer Bruneau (Depth Rapture; After the Angel Mill). Though subtitled A Novel of Intertwined Lives, the narrative fails to quite cohere, unraveling instead into three separate autobiographies. The Coxes, a working-class, British family, come to Canada in the late 1880s in search of work. Effie, the eldest child, tells her story through letters to a long-deceased little sister, letters her daughter, Ruby, finds decades later. Upon Effie's death, Ruby inherits the keys to the family store. With a cheating husband and no children of her own, she becomes the guardian of her niece, Lindy. Now, at age 90, Ruby is suffering from Alzheimer's, leaving Lindy, in her 60s, to run the store and tend to her aunt, who is prone to ever more unusual behavior. As if Lindy doesn't have enough to deal with, Wilf, a jovial customer nearing retirement, has grown sweet on her. Effie's epistolary chapters provide a diversion from the stream-of-consciousness narration of Ruby and Lindy; the novelty of their chapters soon wears thin. Threads of stories separate and are dropped for instance, Wilf's highway crew finds some old bones near the town cemetery, but after a moment of panic the entire subplot is discarded. The language is often cluttered and awkward, relying heavily on clumsy similes. Warmly imagined but of uneven execution, the tale falters and stumbles, losing its way in Bruneau's verbiage.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Enveloping the characters in Canadian story writer Bruneau's first novel is a crazy quilt, a marvelous patchwork decorated with "purple thread for sky." The quilt was made at the beginning of the century by Euphemia, unhappily married and living in a mining town of Nova Scotia. Now her daughter Ruby, nearly 90 when the novel opens, wraps herself in the quilt to remember her mother and her own youth. What she can't remember is how to turn off the stove or what she had for lunch. These mental lapses concern her niece and caretaker, Lucinda Hammond, who's still running the store that has been in the family for three generations. Bruneau has crafted distinct and authentic voices for these three women bluff, middle-aged Lucinda, pleased by the attentions of the rugged construction boss, Wilf; irritable Ruby, who doesn't understand her niece yet fondly remembers the days of her own courtship; and passionate Euphemia, writing letters to her dead sister. These voices drive the narrative and keep the reader interested in what will happen next. This solid and satisfying novel is recommended for all public libraries. Yvette Olson, City Univ. Lib., Renton, WA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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