All Times Have Been Modern

by Elisabeth Harvor

Vibrant and illuminating, All Times Have Been Modern tells the story of an education of the heart that becomes an education in the world. After Kay marries Alexander Oleski, a Polish émigré she meets the summer she turns twenty, she travels to Europe and writes a slim novel, igniting grand dreams for herself as a writer. But fallow years follow. When her marriage comes to an end in the 1980s, she decides to move to Montreal and dedicate herself to writing. But in Montreal the life she has planned for herself is interrupted when she falls in love with an architect. Liberating, unpredictable, All Times Have Been Modern is a virtuoso novel that explores the confounding ways that life and fiction collide and overlap. It also raises unsettling questions about the conflicts between love and identity, intimacy and solitude, emotional intensity and what endures.

Genres: Contemporary, Canada

Paperback

First published September 13, 2004

About the author

Erica Elisabeth Arendt Deichmann, known as Elisabeth Harvor, was a Canadian short story writer, poet, and novelist.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely grew on me - I was ambivalent, but drawn in by the sensuality of the book. My husband would hate this book as it has very little by way of plot and in a way, not even a lot of character development. But I liked its languid style and got sucked into reading it to the end, actually enjoying most of it.

[Carly Svamvour]

I got this at a yard sale recently. Am going to start reading it today.

This author interests me, in particular - she used to live in our building. The reason I know that is because I had a book out of the library that gave addresses in Toronto, and showed what literary characters had lived in them.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about starving artists.
I don't know why I keep reading them....

This one is a gem. Very good prose. Good story line. Interesting characters.
CanLit. So all is good.

[Lesley Carol Prince · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one is interested in observations about the craft of writing, this book is worthwhile. The storyline, however, is somewhat weak and at times, boring.

[Mary Curran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ridiculously self-important, repetitive and boring. Ashamed that several Canadian arts grants subsidized this one!