Reviews "Instead of employing flashy prose, [Walters] relies on craft, intelligence and heartfelt emotion. The Woman Upstairs overflows with humanity, a staple of fiction that never passes out of style." - Winnipeg Free Press "It is an absorbing and well-crafted book, a broody mystery, a puzzle whose closely interlocking pieces are tossed out, flash-back style, at just about the perfect pace for the reader." - Alberta Report "With this novel [Walters] has served notice that she has the fictional techniques to make a significant contribution." - Calgary Herald (These reviews refer to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.) Product Description Diana Guthrie is a young woman struggling between her sense of what she "ought" to do and her need to believe she is more than a puppet manipulated by other people. When she learns that her powerful and controlling mother-whom she hasn't seen in 15 years-is dying, she hurries back to her childhood home. There she is faced with memories and conflicts that threaten to prevent her from climbing the stairs that will take her to her mother's bedside. Will she find the courage to face her mother before it is too late? Winner of a Writers Guild of Alberta Award for Excellence in Writing, The Woman Upstairs was published to widespread acclaim in 1989 by NeWest Press but quickly sold out and remained out of print for more than two decades. During that time, Mary W. Walters (who began her writing career as Mary Walters Riskin) published a second novel (Bitters, NeWest Press), a collection of short stories (Cool, River Books), and a book of non-fiction (Write An Effective Funding Application: A Guide for Researchers and Scholars, The Johns Hopkins University Press), as well as dozens of articles and short stories. This new edition of The Woman Upstairs will be welcomed by Walters' long-time readers, as well as by new fans of her work.
The Woman Upstairs: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Mary W. Walters lives in Toronto where she works as a writer and as a freelance editor and writing coach, primarily with academics who are preparing journal articles and grant applications. She also speaks to scholarly groups about writing effective funding applications. Walters has published three books of fiction (The Woman Upstairs, Bitters, and Cool), and one book of non-fiction (Write an effective funding application: a guide for researchers and scholars). Her web address is www.marywwalters.com
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
I write fiction and non-fiction. I have developed three series of audiocasts to help 1) researchers and scholars; 2) artists and writers; and 3) non-profit organizations and community groups to write effective funding applications, and these series are available on my reallyeffectivewriting dot com website. I work with academics and other researchers as an editor and consultant on articles and grant applications. I assist novelists with substantive and copy editing, and I work as a coach for writers of both fiction and non-fiction. In addition to my newest novel, The Whole Clove Diet, my most recent book is non-fiction, and is entitled Write an Effective Funding Application: A Guide for Researchers and Scholars (The Johns Hopkins University Press). I have also published two other novels, The Woman Upstairs (originally published by NeWest Press, 1987) and Bitters (NeWest, 1999), as well as a collection of short stories (Cool, River Books, 2000). I have won a Writers Guild of Alberta Award for Excellence in Writing and an Alberta Achievement Award, and I am listed in Who's Who in Canada. My short fiction has been short-listed for such prizes as the CBC/Saturday Night Fiction Competition and the Journey Prize, and has been published in more than a dozen literary journals and magazines.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Bev
Format:Paperback
When I first read The Woman Upstairs, I was a young woman not much older than Diana Guthrie. At that time I think I was a little impatient with Diana and her inability to face people and get on with life. I enjoyed the author's evocative descriptive writing and attention to details (I loved the way I could picture everything - the people, the rooms, the settings), but at times I was annoyed with the constant flashbacks. Now, 24 years later, I am in a much different phase of my life - more memories, more heartaches, more defining life experiences - and I have much more understanding of and empathy for Diana and the rest of the characters. The writing still evokes strong emotions, but I see things differently now. I really appreciate how skillfully the author weaves it all together and I can keep up with the flashbacks, as that's how my life is these days, too.
Once you start to read the book, you'll want to just keep going until you're finished. An excellent novel.
Once you start to read the book, you'll want to just keep going until you're finished. An excellent novel.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another free Kindle edition (I think it is not available for free any longer, but well worth its current price!) I found while, for the first two or three weeks after I received my Kindle, I was almost daily browsing the Kindle store, building up a library of well over 80 books (fiction and non fiction), almost all of them for free.
This novel by Mary W. Walters was first published in 1989, Amazon tells me.
The main character, Diana Guthrie, is seen heading back to her childhood home, where she has not been for 15 years; driven away by not only a strict and seemingly loveless mother, but by the generally restrictive atmosphere in the small town she grew up in as well as by a tragic event that changed her life forever and left her scarred.
She is going there now because she feels it is the right thing to do: she was told her mother is dying.
Already on the way back, her mind goes back and forth between past and present. We learn about the way things were dealt with at the Guthrie household, and begin to understand why Diana wanted to leave, HAD to leave in order for being a person in her own right.
Once arrived, Diana gets mixed reactions from the people there - her brother, an old school friend, the housekeeper, the family doctor and others -, and she herself is thrown into a turmoil of conflicting emotions, too.
It takes a while before she decides to climb the stairs and meet "the woman upstairs" who is, of course, her mother.
The book ends on a note that leaves the reader to imagine what Diana is going to do next; stay or leave again? Has she really begun to come to terms with the past?
I liked this novel. It was well written, atmospheric, and I could picture the places and characters in my mind.... Read more ›
This novel by Mary W. Walters was first published in 1989, Amazon tells me.
The main character, Diana Guthrie, is seen heading back to her childhood home, where she has not been for 15 years; driven away by not only a strict and seemingly loveless mother, but by the generally restrictive atmosphere in the small town she grew up in as well as by a tragic event that changed her life forever and left her scarred.
She is going there now because she feels it is the right thing to do: she was told her mother is dying.
Already on the way back, her mind goes back and forth between past and present. We learn about the way things were dealt with at the Guthrie household, and begin to understand why Diana wanted to leave, HAD to leave in order for being a person in her own right.
Once arrived, Diana gets mixed reactions from the people there - her brother, an old school friend, the housekeeper, the family doctor and others -, and she herself is thrown into a turmoil of conflicting emotions, too.
It takes a while before she decides to climb the stairs and meet "the woman upstairs" who is, of course, her mother.
The book ends on a note that leaves the reader to imagine what Diana is going to do next; stay or leave again? Has she really begun to come to terms with the past?
I liked this novel. It was well written, atmospheric, and I could picture the places and characters in my mind.... Read more ›
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Ruth
Format:Paperback
I found this book a fascinating read. I read it when it was first published many years ago and loved it then. I recently re-read it and loved it just as much the second time around. I found the writing exquisite - I love the author's great ability to use language so beautifully, to describe settings and feelings so accurately that I felt I could reach out and touch them. This story tells of a young woman coming to grips with her past and herself, which is to me at the heart of what it means to become a grown-up; never an easy task but one that can lead one to unimagined places. A great novel!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved the style of this book, which contains just the right mix of introspection, description and interplay of characters for my tastes. Diana has been estranged from her mother her entire adult life. Now thirty-three, she learns her mother is dying, so with great misgivings, she journeys from her home in Edmonton back to Ontario where she grew up. The story takes place over the course of only two or three days, but through flashbacks we're taken through years of Diana's life, and we learn the causes of her anger at her mother. The author portrays the difficult relationship between the mothers and daughters in this novel well. I really like how the reader gradually comes to see that despite Diana's quest to escape her mother and grandmother, to live a different life and make different choices they they did, she has not succeeded as fully as she thinks she has. She's more like both women than she knows. Although I'm disposed to take Diana's side and believe that her mother was colder and less loving than she could or should have been, the author still manages to create a sense of sympathy for her mother. She did the best she could.
The only reason this book gets four rather than five stars is the ending. The whole novel is building up to the moment when Diana finally develops the courage to face her dying mother, and I would have liked to see a more clear resolution between them. The lack of this feels very true to life, but it leaves my readerly wishes for a happier ending unsatisfied.
This was a beautiful and highly readable novel. I loved the descriptions of Edmonton and Ontario. I grew up in a prairie city and later moved to Ontario, and I found the descriptions were dead on.... Read more ›
The only reason this book gets four rather than five stars is the ending. The whole novel is building up to the moment when Diana finally develops the courage to face her dying mother, and I would have liked to see a more clear resolution between them. The lack of this feels very true to life, but it leaves my readerly wishes for a happier ending unsatisfied.
This was a beautiful and highly readable novel. I loved the descriptions of Edmonton and Ontario. I grew up in a prairie city and later moved to Ontario, and I found the descriptions were dead on.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely
With aging parents of my own, this novel was timely. It underlines how important it is to talk about it, otherwise, you will never know.
Published 10 days ago by Dr. Patti A Peiffer
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Woman Upstairs
This woman was such a bore and did nothing but complain about her Mother and she even wished her dead. That to me is disgusting. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Carmela M. Eichen
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beguiling Canadian Novel
I picked this up when it was free on Kindle as I knew Mary Waters to be an excellent blog writer. (Someone famous once said that a person who writes good letters is a good writer,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kim Velk
2.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly disappointing
While the book is well written the story is a meandering mess and so slight as to border on the banal.
Published 4 months ago by a reader from coconut grove
1.0 out of 5 stars
feedback
Not a great book, just ok for me. I would not be interested in buying another book may this author.
Published 13 months ago by Larry Gilliland
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich characters and good story
Mary Walters is a natural storyteller who takes a mother-daughter relationship story and delves deep. Read more
Published 13 months ago by marjorie
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timeless and vivid window into a family's dysfunction
First published in 1989, The Woman Upstairs written by Mary W. Walters is a timeless tale of a family's descent into dysfunction and estrangement. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Connie J. Jasperson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting family dynamics
This book was worth the read especially as it was free and am just beginning to use this reader format. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kathryn Carr-Hernandez
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling storytelling
The author did a wonderful job of bringing story to life with vivid visualizations. Her descriptions brought us inside of tiny Canadian town where the main character must confront... Read more
Published 13 months ago by JazzyLiteratureLover
