The Woman Upstairs: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Mary W. Walters (Author)

Book 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.  Her newest novel is The Whole Clove Diet.

This new edition of The Woman Upstairs will be welcomed by Walters' long-time readers, as well as by new fans of her work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

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

• File Size: 461 KB
• Print Length: 186 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1453808981
• Publisher: CreateSpace; II edition (February 1, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004LX0KRU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,396 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a great read! January 17, 2011

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read May 11, 2012

By Meks Librarian

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. There were a few surprises for me; for instance, many authors like to use the weather or seasons for dramatic effect, and at first, I was sure Mary W. Walters was about to do that as well, and expected the oppressive humid heat described from when Diana first lands at the airport to dissolve into a huge tempest at the culmination of events and emotions. It does not happen, and that is maybe her way of using weather for dramatic effect - nothing goes "bang", suddenly changing Diana's whole approach to the past and to her mother, but things happen more subtly here, which is probably a lot more difficult to write.

I recommend this to anyone who likes stories about people who manage to find their own way.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great novel February 1, 2011

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!

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.