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Homesick
It is the summer of 1959, and in a prairie town in Saskatchewan, Alec Monkman waits for his estranged daughter to come home, with the grandson he has never seen. But this is an uneasy reunion. Fiercely independent, Vera has been on her own since running away at nineteen – first to the army, and then to Toronto. Now, for the sake of her young son, she must swallow her pride and return home after seventeen years. As the story gradually unfolds, the past confronts the present in unexpected ways as the silence surrounding Vera’s brother is finally shattered and the truth behind Vera’s long absence revealed. With its tenderness, humour, and vivid evocation of character and place, Homesick confirms Guy Vanderhaeghe’s reputation as one of Canada’s most engaging and accomplished storytellers.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
5 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Guy Vanderhaeghe
34 books197 followersGuy Clarence Vanderhaeghe, OC, SOM is a Canadian fiction author.
Vanderhaeghe received his Bachelor of Arts degree with great distinction in 1971, High Honours in History in 1972 and Master of Arts in History in 1975, all from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1978 he received his Bachelor of Education with great distinction from the University of Regina. In 1973 he was Research Officer, Institute for Northern Studies, University of Saskatchewan and, from 1974 until 1977, he worked as Archival and Library Assistant at the university. From 1975 to 1977 he was a freelance writer and editor and in 1978 and 1979 taught English and history at Herbert High School in Herbert, Saskatchewan. In 1983 and 1984 he was Writer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Public Library and in 1985 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He has been a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa (1985-86), faculty member of the Writing Program of the Banff Centre for the Arts (1990-91), faculty member in charge of senior fiction students in the SAGE Hills Creative Writing Program (1992). Since 1993 he has served as a visiting professor of English at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.
Vanderhaeghe lives with his wife in Saskatoon.
Vanderhaeghe's first book, Man Descending: selected stories (1982), was winner of a Governor General's Award and the United Kingdom's Faber Prize. A novel, The Englishman's Boy (1996), won him a second Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and it was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
He is perhaps best-known for The Last Crossing (2001), a national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year. The novel was selected for the 2004 edition of Canada Reads as the book that should be read by all Canadians.
In 2003, Vanderhaeghe was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Vanderhaeghe received his Bachelor of Arts degree with great distinction in 1971, High Honours in History in 1972 and Master of Arts in History in 1975, all from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1978 he received his Bachelor of Education with great distinction from the University of Regina. In 1973 he was Research Officer, Institute for Northern Studies, University of Saskatchewan and, from 1974 until 1977, he worked as Archival and Library Assistant at the university. From 1975 to 1977 he was a freelance writer and editor and in 1978 and 1979 taught English and history at Herbert High School in Herbert, Saskatchewan. In 1983 and 1984 he was Writer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Public Library and in 1985 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He has been a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa (1985-86), faculty member of the Writing Program of the Banff Centre for the Arts (1990-91), faculty member in charge of senior fiction students in the SAGE Hills Creative Writing Program (1992). Since 1993 he has served as a visiting professor of English at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.
Vanderhaeghe lives with his wife in Saskatoon.
Vanderhaeghe's first book, Man Descending: selected stories (1982), was winner of a Governor General's Award and the United Kingdom's Faber Prize. A novel, The Englishman's Boy (1996), won him a second Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and it was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
He is perhaps best-known for The Last Crossing (2001), a national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year. The novel was selected for the 2004 edition of Canada Reads as the book that should be read by all Canadians.
In 2003, Vanderhaeghe was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 38 reviews
May 14, 2020
This is a marvelous story of conflict, clashes, and love between three generations (grandfather, daughter and daughter’s son). The author weaves these three distinct characters so well and we are brought into this novel – that takes us between Toronto and a small fictional town in Saskatchewan. Most of the story takes place in this little town. There is also humour, a lot of it emanating from the single-parent daughter who is resilient and mouthy.
Perhaps the ending gives us a little .
I came to feel a part of the lives of these three – and their companions and friends as we progress through their day-to-day issues. We also feel the strengths and weaknesses of each character. The prairie atmosphere around the small town with its changing seasons was vividly painted by the author.
Perhaps the ending gives us a little .
I came to feel a part of the lives of these three – and their companions and friends as we progress through their day-to-day issues. We also feel the strengths and weaknesses of each character. The prairie atmosphere around the small town with its changing seasons was vividly painted by the author.
April 12, 2015
I finished this several days ago and I’m still trying to decide if everything fit together. The story is largely set in Saskatchewan in 1959, with flashbacks to Vera’s childhood and life after she left home at the age of seventeen. Now in her mid- to late-30s she has a 12-year-old son, Daniel, who she worries obsessively over because of negative big city influences. So she decides to return to her isolated hometown to live with her father. This takes a 56 hour bus ride. I’ll think of that next time I have a long and cramped plane ride!
But here’s the catch. Vera and her father Alec are both stubbornly and unreasonably headstrong and neither will back down and admit fault or apologize for their actions, words or decisions. This was true during her childhood and remains so after she returns with son in tow. This son turns out to be a good kid caught between his mother’s expectations and a growing love for a grandfather who becomes his father figure. Right or wrong, Alec’s anecdotes that guide Daniel on his way to manhood are highly entertaining. I felt Vera’s tales were sometimes less successful, though still well told.
What ensues is a story of mistakes and broken down family communication. And this is the strength and core of the book. Readers who relish stories centered around family dynamics (Anne Tyler comes to mind) will find much to like in this book. There’s humor and tears. A book that pulls at the heartstrings.
But here’s the catch. Vera and her father Alec are both stubbornly and unreasonably headstrong and neither will back down and admit fault or apologize for their actions, words or decisions. This was true during her childhood and remains so after she returns with son in tow. This son turns out to be a good kid caught between his mother’s expectations and a growing love for a grandfather who becomes his father figure. Right or wrong, Alec’s anecdotes that guide Daniel on his way to manhood are highly entertaining. I felt Vera’s tales were sometimes less successful, though still well told.
What ensues is a story of mistakes and broken down family communication. And this is the strength and core of the book. Readers who relish stories centered around family dynamics (Anne Tyler comes to mind) will find much to like in this book. There’s humor and tears. A book that pulls at the heartstrings.
April 17, 2015
A quiet moving book with deeply developed characters and relationships. For the reader much is left unsaid but all is conveyed. For the characters in the story, much is left unsaid and the results are often tragic. Wonderful descriptions of place and time. Excellent writing.
April 10, 2015
I knew this was a 5-star read probably 2 pages in. My first read of Vanderhaeghe, but Homesick has made certain it will now not be my last. Fantastic read.
January 23, 2020
This is a very sad book. Fortunately, that's not a turn-off for me; my kids say I like sad movies & sad books. True. But some are REALLY sad like The Goldfinch & this one. In this novel Vera is returning home, a widow with a 12 year old boy; she wants to change his life, she thinks he is going to get into trouble where they are. She left when she was very young, unhappy with the life her father, Alec, had foisted upon her when her mother died, keeping house & being a caregiver for her brother Earl. Living together does not last long & Vera moves out to a crap house with her son & makes her own way creating another estrangement with her father. Her son Daniel, however, maintains a relationship with his grandfather, whom he has come to love. Yes, Alec is a pain in the ass a lot of the time & the cards that he dealt Vera were harsh ones & her worries about his influence on Daniel may be justified but I found Vera harsh, & unrelentingly unforgiving. Can't say more without spoilers. I found it beautifully written & I liked the setting & time period - small Canadian town, WWII & after.
April 12, 2015
there were many moments in this book which i really enjoyed so much, but there were parts that just didn't come together for me. i was frustrated by the stubbornness and lack of communication going on between alec and vera (father and daughter in the novel). i get it. i do. people really are like this, and it's great to write around two characters like this. i suppose i just feel like more opportunities could have been taken to show more dimensions with alec and vera. they did have moments, and i liked when these were presented in the story. i have read vanderhaeghe before, and loved him. so perhaps my expectations were just too high going into this novel? please know i didn't dislike the book - i did like it. i just didn't love it.
February 15, 2019
This is the story of a grumpy old man and a defiant daughter.
It is a story of secrets and shame; of hard-heartedness and hard-headedness.
It is a look at the lives of those unable to forgive, to look beyond past mistakes or to show, give or receive love.
I had hope, all the way to the end of the last page.
Now … I just feel empty inside, for the chances lost and the time gone forever.
This book is a study on how not to live your life.
It is a story of secrets and shame; of hard-heartedness and hard-headedness.
It is a look at the lives of those unable to forgive, to look beyond past mistakes or to show, give or receive love.
I had hope, all the way to the end of the last page.
Now … I just feel empty inside, for the chances lost and the time gone forever.
This book is a study on how not to live your life.
March 2, 2022
From the Goodreads Blurb: It is the summer of 1959, and in a prairie town in Saskatchewan, Alec Monkman waits for his estranged daughter to come home, with the grandson he has never seen. But this is an uneasy reunion. Fiercely independent, Vera has been on her own since running away at nineteen – first to the army, and then to Toronto. Now, for the sake of her young son, she must swallow her pride and return home after seventeen years.
Convincingly drawn characters and settings. I would have been three or four years younger than Daniel — Vera's son in the book — and living in a small village in northern Alberta in 1959 so the landscape was familiar. An epilogue would have been nice.
Convincingly drawn characters and settings. I would have been three or four years younger than Daniel — Vera's son in the book — and living in a small village in northern Alberta in 1959 so the landscape was familiar. An epilogue would have been nice.
February 15, 2020
The title is a double entendre as the Monkman home is hardly a paragon of relationship health. Nevertheless, or maybe because of that, this tale of Saskatchewan family loyalty, lies, love, and loss is a tale well told. The character of Vera in particular is poignant and gripping, as is the mystery of what happened to her brother Earl and what draws her to her stony father, Alec. A very good novel by a very good writer.
May 16, 2024
Margaret loaned me this book while visiting her in Montreal. It is a slice of life in a small town in Saskatchewan and paints the best picture in your mind. Lots of details describing the landscape, people and their lives. I really loved it. It goes back and forth in time explaining how the daughter left for Toronto, what happened to her there, why she returns to Connaught SK, etc. A really lovely read. I would read another by him.
May 18, 2024
It’s tricky to rate this book, quite honestly. I found it difficult to read at times because it was extremely descriptive and I’d get lost in the words. I don’t love a lot of description but love dialogue - that’s just me, but I didn’t want to rate less stars for that. I hated how it ended but maybe that was intentional. Not all stories have a happy ending. I really felt for all the characters. It wasn’t my favourite book, but it really made me think about my own relationship with my father.
June 19, 2024
This author was recommended to me by a friend, so when I found it for my Kobo, I jumped on the chance to see why she thought so highly of the writer. With good reason I found, it was a joy to read.
The writing, though simple, is evocative and beautiful and the characters come to life with dignity and authenticity. And the quality of the prairie landscape and the small town constrictions become another character because of the author's lyrical prose.
The writing, though simple, is evocative and beautiful and the characters come to life with dignity and authenticity. And the quality of the prairie landscape and the small town constrictions become another character because of the author's lyrical prose.
May 15, 2018
A beautiful, painful, occasionally raw look at people looking for love, but finding it almost impossible to express. This is both an exquisitely written story, and an example on how to use the past as more than just a golden dose of nostalgia. I was taken completely by surprise when this novel suddenly grabbed my soul and refused to let go...
April 12, 2021
Mr. Vanderhaeghe again has developed more characters that seem so real; all their bumps, bruises and joys. I so enjoy his writing. I am only going to speak to the moral of this story and that is, don't wait until it's too late. You should forgive and accept who some people are or you will live with regret your whole life.
December 1, 2019
It seemed a very accurate description of three characters across generations of a same family. The story emerge slowly but surely and what remain is the impossibility of any worthwhile communication among them as exists in many families.
August 16, 2017
why did it take so long for me to find this treasure?
October 21, 2017
Couldn't put this one down.
October 25, 2017
I have never gone wrong with Guy Vanderhaeghe. I always get what I expect. Fully developed characters living in a fully developed novel. Thanks Guy!!
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December 8, 2020I love Vanderhaeghe's writing; so descriptive with such unique analogies. Anything he writes is worth reading. I enjoyed this story, about grief and love.
August 29, 2021
Father and daughter are estranged, mainly because both of them are assholes and nothing ever improves. The author's other books are much better.
February 23, 2022
I loved this book with its raw engaging characters and landscape. Made me homesick for the rawness of the prairies and it's people too.
July 30, 2012
Thirty-six-year-old Vera Miller doesn’t want to return to her father’s home in the small town of Connaught, Saskatchewan, but she feels there’s little choice. As a single mother with a dead-end job and a twelve-year-old boy who’s falling under negative influences, it’s time to take action. The problem is that Vera’s been angry with her father since before she left home seventeen years earlier, and her anger hasn’t faded.
Homesick is a beautifully written story about a family who can’t accept, or abide, one another’s strongest traits, or flaws, as the case may be. There are secrets and memories that haunt Vera and her father Alec. Fences need to be mended, yet each cannot quite fully take that final step, and this makes the story riveting and painful.
I loved the fact that this isn’t a story about horrible abuse or murder, yet judging from the level of Vera’s anger I thought it might be in the opening chapters. Don’t get me wrong, there are serious issues in a story dominated by obstinate personalities and misunderstandings. It’s about how elusive forgiveness can be, and it’s a great read.
Homesick is a beautifully written story about a family who can’t accept, or abide, one another’s strongest traits, or flaws, as the case may be. There are secrets and memories that haunt Vera and her father Alec. Fences need to be mended, yet each cannot quite fully take that final step, and this makes the story riveting and painful.
I loved the fact that this isn’t a story about horrible abuse or murder, yet judging from the level of Vera’s anger I thought it might be in the opening chapters. Don’t get me wrong, there are serious issues in a story dominated by obstinate personalities and misunderstandings. It’s about how elusive forgiveness can be, and it’s a great read.
April 13, 2013
There's nothing all that fascinating about the book; nothing exotic or particularly shocking. It's the story of a typical family situation where a single mother returns to her father's home, even though it's the last place she wants to be, but she knows it's the best thing for her young teenage son.
I like the way Vanderhaeghe weaves the tale - he gives a little backstory here and there so the reader understands just how the mother and son came to be where they're at.
There's a brother and a little mystery surrounding him. We do not know until the end of the book just where he got to.
It's the kind of story you can snuggle under the covers with and be sure it'll take you there.
I like the way Vanderhaeghe weaves the tale - he gives a little backstory here and there so the reader understands just how the mother and son came to be where they're at.
There's a brother and a little mystery surrounding him. We do not know until the end of the book just where he got to.
It's the kind of story you can snuggle under the covers with and be sure it'll take you there.
July 23, 2012
Couldn't decide if I "really liked" or only "liked" this book--I was definitely caught up in it and usually read longer than planned whenever I picked it up. The 2 main characters, Alex and his daughter Vera, are both so stubborn you want to shake them, but during the course of the novel you do get some insight into why this is so. Still maybe just a bit overdone. I like the descriptions, and the different points of view, although at times near the end of the book this becomes a little confusing--for example suddenly one chapter is in the first person, which hasn't happened up till then. But generally a "good read"!
February 26, 2015
This was printed in 1982, and was one of Guy Vanderhaeghe's first books.
Set in Saskatchewan, a touching family drama in which everyone has secrets, every character is three dimensional, complex, evolving, touchingly real.
I had to hold myself in check - hurry through to see what was going to happen, or go slow and savour the story and keep it at it longer.
The only complaint I have is that the "mystery" of the brother could have been shown by the sister's perspective a little more deeply.
A very good book by a great writer.
Set in Saskatchewan, a touching family drama in which everyone has secrets, every character is three dimensional, complex, evolving, touchingly real.
I had to hold myself in check - hurry through to see what was going to happen, or go slow and savour the story and keep it at it longer.
The only complaint I have is that the "mystery" of the brother could have been shown by the sister's perspective a little more deeply.
A very good book by a great writer.
August 8, 2011
This novel's rendering of the attempts by an estranged father and daughter to establish a new relationship is straightforward, down to earth, unvarnished and very effecting because it never overtly pulls at the reader's heartstrings. The lives of the crusty but not uncaring father, the feisty daughter, her surprisingly but not unrealistically mature 12-year-old son and a dedicated and long-suffering family friend intertwine in emotionally resonant fashion.
April 19, 2015
This was a very easy read. Vanderhaeghe is a great story teller. Actually this book made me incredibly sad for a variety of reasons. The grandson-grandfather relationship was an interesting one. I felt all the characters were well fleshed out and the ending was satisfying, but I found the last 1/4 of the book so very very sad.
May 18, 2023
This is that rare kind of book that is a quiet character study, but also a page turner. Even though the plot is very simple and made up of mostly quiet, every-day moments, the writing is so good that I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.
May 16, 2011
Families, their failures and secrets and the deep effects these have on the lives of their individuals. It's a simple story, but well told and affecting.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 38 reviews