An Engaging Read
Just finished a good book. It's Ami McKay's The Birth House. It's lively, it's different in style, it's well-researched with much historically accurate detail, and it's an altogether delightful first novel. That's my opinion. My book group discussed the book two months ago and I wasn't able to go at the time, but I heard that the book was given a rather mixed review with some being disappointed. Yes, I agree, it did seem a little far-fetched with the author pulling in every possible historic event of the years from 1917 to about 1920: the war, the suffragette movement, the Halifax Explosion, a Boston molasses company blown up (true - someone checked!) and so on all in the same book. But, hey, why quibble? It was possible.
The book was on the best seller lists for several months and most people have probably heard the author's intriguing story: she and her partner had moved to the small community of Scots Bay, Nova Scotia from Chicago and found out that the old house they'd bought with a view to renovating was actually once the home of the local midwife and was known locally as the birth house. There's lots of information about it on the author's website as well as all kinds of other interesting bits and pieces.
Fascinating to me and lending an air of authenticity was the local interest of the setting: I can see the line of the North Mountain in the distance from my kitchen window and the many small communities mentioned in the book are just part of the local area around here. However, I wouldn't ordinarily like a book expressly because there were local place names in it. The book would have to have some sort of universality in its theme. I'm reminded of the works of David Adams Richards with their setting on the Miramichi in New Brunswick. There's a familiarity to Richards because his books are set in the area in which I grew up, and that adds an extra dimension for me as I read them.
One of the charms of The Birth House is that it's written as a diary or journal. But, in addition to the written journal entries the author of the journal (the main character, the midwife Dora Rare) has inserted many clippings from the local newspaper, quirky old advertisements from magazines, letters and so on. Thus, it's more of a scrapbook than a journal. This reminds me of an on-going project being carrried out by one of the professors in the Womens Studies Program at nearby Acadia University . She is interested in how women have kept scrapbooks to record and save their family history and as a means of collecting pertinent details of their experiences. About a month ago I was interviewed about a few of the scrapbooks I've kept for various reasons and I spent an interesting morning in conversation about the topic. Art, it seems, imitates life. Or is it the other way round?
The book was on the best seller lists for several months and most people have probably heard the author's intriguing story: she and her partner had moved to the small community of Scots Bay, Nova Scotia from Chicago and found out that the old house they'd bought with a view to renovating was actually once the home of the local midwife and was known locally as the birth house. There's lots of information about it on the author's website as well as all kinds of other interesting bits and pieces.
Fascinating to me and lending an air of authenticity was the local interest of the setting: I can see the line of the North Mountain in the distance from my kitchen window and the many small communities mentioned in the book are just part of the local area around here. However, I wouldn't ordinarily like a book expressly because there were local place names in it. The book would have to have some sort of universality in its theme. I'm reminded of the works of David Adams Richards with their setting on the Miramichi in New Brunswick. There's a familiarity to Richards because his books are set in the area in which I grew up, and that adds an extra dimension for me as I read them.
One of the charms of The Birth House is that it's written as a diary or journal. But, in addition to the written journal entries the author of the journal (the main character, the midwife Dora Rare) has inserted many clippings from the local newspaper, quirky old advertisements from magazines, letters and so on. Thus, it's more of a scrapbook than a journal. This reminds me of an on-going project being carrried out by one of the professors in the Womens Studies Program at nearby Acadia University . She is interested in how women have kept scrapbooks to record and save their family history and as a means of collecting pertinent details of their experiences. About a month ago I was interviewed about a few of the scrapbooks I've kept for various reasons and I spent an interesting morning in conversation about the topic. Art, it seems, imitates life. Or is it the other way round?
posted by mamie @ 8:39 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:57 PM,
canary said…
We missed your comments at the meeting so it is good to hear your opinion of the book. I have difficulty being completely objective about The Birth House having been in a writing group with the author while it was being written and checking into her blog off and on while it was taking shape. My knowing the author personally (although not very well) both inclines me to be approving and also perhaps overly critical and I distrust my opinion on both counts.
But for what it is worth my conclusion after weighing both sides of my mind is that I think she allowed her "position" on the subject of home birth to direct her story telling. And that is a shame because she writes extremely well. Perhaps I am just envious that she has succeeded at doing what I would love to do half as well.
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