Hoda is a prostitute, but that is not the most important fact about her. Earthy, bawdy, vulnerable, and big-hearted, she is the daughter of an impoverished Jewish couple who emigrated from Russia to Canada to escape persecution. Growing up in a ghetto of Winnipeg, she experiences cruelty and bigotry early and fights back with humor and anger, which is something to behold as her young body takes on gargantuan proportions. In the neighborhood, she is considered a crackpot and worse. In truth, she is a cracked pot, a flawed human being, but her quest for love, which brings hope out of humiliation, is one of the most memorable in modern fiction. Crackpot , set in the period between two world wars, is Adele Wiseman's comic vision, for all its darkness. Somewhat satirically, the novel touches on puritanical hypocrisy and the inhumanity of institutions, notably the schools and the welfare system. Hoda, caught in a web of relationships beginning with her blind father and humpbacked mother, is its great heartbeat.
Adele Wiseman Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)
Adele Wiseman was een Canadese auteur wiens werk zich verdiepte in de diepten van identiteit en ontheemding. Haar ouders, Russische Joden, vluchtten uit Oekraïne om aan pogroms te ontsnappen, en deze ervaring van exodus en het zoeken naar een nieuw thuis beïnvloedde waarschijnlijk haar literaire thema's. Wiseman onderzocht de complexiteit van de menselijke conditie in haar geschriften, vaak door middel van verhalen die sociale en culturele botsingen onderzochten. Haar innovatieve aanpak en inzichtelijke proza lieten een onuitwisbare indruk achter in de Canadese literatuur.
In Hagar Shipley, Margaret Laurence has created one of the boldest, most memorable characters in Canadian fiction. Raise according to the stern virtues of her pioneer ancestors, Hagar Shipley leads a life of uncompromising pride--a pride which sustained her during a stormy marriage, but which lost her favourite son. As her story unfolds we are given vividly etched descriptions of Hagar as a young girl in a remote prairie town; of her now estranged husband; of John, her outoing son; and Marvin, the son she never loved. And now, with her life nearly behind her, Hagar makes a bold, last step towards freedom and independence, and in the Process gains a deeper understanding of the meaning of acceptance.