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Monodromos
'MONODROMOS', ENGEL'S THIRD NOVEL, CONCERNS AUDREY MOORE-- CANADIAN, INTELLIGENT AND 36 -- AND HER EXPERIENCE IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN ISLAND ONCE SACRED TO APHRODITE. STAYING WITH THEIR ESTRANGED HUSBAND, A HAS-BEEN CONCERT PIANIST, SHE ATTEMPTS TO FATHOM THE RICH CULTURE CONFUSION OF AN ISLAND WHICH HAS CHANGED HANDS A HUNDRED TIMES SINCE CLEOPATRA GAVE IT TO ANTHONY AS A WEDDING PRESENT. TROUBLED BY MEMORIES OF HER PAST IN ENGLAND AND CANADA, SHE FINDS A GREEK LOVER AND A CIRCLE OF EXPATRIATES, ARTISTS, FRIENDS AND DOUBTFUL ACQUAIN- TANCES. HER DEEPENING INVOLVEMENT WITH ISLAND LIFE AND LANDSCAPE PROVIDE HER WITH MANY INSIGHTS, BUT SHE HAD ALSO A SENSE THAT THIS PLACE, FOR HER, IS A ONE-WAY STREET 'MONODROMOS' IN GREEK. THE GROWING TENSIONS IN THE BOOK ERUPT IN A GRIPPING, TRAGIC-COMIC FINALE, AS SHE VISITS AN ORTHODOX MONASTERY AND DISCOVERS THAT SHE WHO TRAVELS ALONE DOES NOT NECESSARILY TRAVEL BEST.
Hardcover
First published June 30, 1988
20 people want to read
About the author
Marian Engel
22 books84 followersCanadian novelist, short-story and children's fiction writer, Marian Engel was a passionate activist for the national and international writer’s cause.
She was the first chair of the Writer’s Union of Canada (1973–74) and helped found the Public Lending Right Commission. From 1975-1977, she served on the City of Toronto Book Award Committee (an award she won in 1981 for Lunatic Villas) and the Canadian Book and Periodical Development Council.
In 1982 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
She married Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio producer Howard Engel in 1962 and, upon their return to Toronto from England in 1964, began to raise a family--twins William Lucas Passmore and Charlotte Helen Arabella--and to pursue a writing career. Marian and Howard separated in 1975 and divorced in 1977.
Engel was writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (1977–1978) and at the University of Toronto (1980–1982).
Her first novel, No Clouds of Glory, was published in 1968. She wrote two children's books: Adventures of Moon Bay Towers (1974) and My name is not Odessa Yarker (1977). Her most famous and controversial novel was Bear(1976), a tale of erotic love between a librarian and a bear, for which she won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction in 1976.
From 1965 to her death in 1985 she corresponded with literary peers and friends such as Hugh MacLennan, Robertson Davies, Dennis Lee, Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Alice Munro, Margaret Laurence, Matt Cohen, Robert Weaver, Graeme Gibson and more. Some of this correspondence can be found in Dear Hugh, Dear Marian: The MacLennan-Engel Correspondence (1995) and Marian Engel: Life in Letters (2004).
After her death in 1985, the Writer's Development Trust of Canada instituted the Marian Engel Award, which was presented annually to a woman writer in mid-career. The Engel and Findley Awards are no longer awarded separately, but were combined into the new Writers’ Trust Notable Author Award as of 2008.
She was the first chair of the Writer’s Union of Canada (1973–74) and helped found the Public Lending Right Commission. From 1975-1977, she served on the City of Toronto Book Award Committee (an award she won in 1981 for Lunatic Villas) and the Canadian Book and Periodical Development Council.
In 1982 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
She married Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio producer Howard Engel in 1962 and, upon their return to Toronto from England in 1964, began to raise a family--twins William Lucas Passmore and Charlotte Helen Arabella--and to pursue a writing career. Marian and Howard separated in 1975 and divorced in 1977.
Engel was writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (1977–1978) and at the University of Toronto (1980–1982).
Her first novel, No Clouds of Glory, was published in 1968. She wrote two children's books: Adventures of Moon Bay Towers (1974) and My name is not Odessa Yarker (1977). Her most famous and controversial novel was Bear(1976), a tale of erotic love between a librarian and a bear, for which she won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction in 1976.
From 1965 to her death in 1985 she corresponded with literary peers and friends such as Hugh MacLennan, Robertson Davies, Dennis Lee, Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Alice Munro, Margaret Laurence, Matt Cohen, Robert Weaver, Graeme Gibson and more. Some of this correspondence can be found in Dear Hugh, Dear Marian: The MacLennan-Engel Correspondence (1995) and Marian Engel: Life in Letters (2004).
After her death in 1985, the Writer's Development Trust of Canada instituted the Marian Engel Award, which was presented annually to a woman writer in mid-career. The Engel and Findley Awards are no longer awarded separately, but were combined into the new Writers’ Trust Notable Author Award as of 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 23, 2026
I found this a really fascinating read.
The novel is set on the island of Cyprus, in the northern, more predominantly Turkish, part of the island. The story reflects a period very close to when the author herself lived there, which was the early 1960s (she and her husband lived and worked on Cyprus around 1962–1964).
In the story, the book’s protagonist, Audrey Moore, receives a telegram summoning her to Cyprus to care for her ex- husband. However, when she arrives, it quickly becomes apparent that neither he wants to spend time with her, nor she with him. Having travelled all the way to Cyprus on a fool’s errand, she decides to take advantage of the situation and stay awhile, spending time experiencing life on the island, interacting with eccentric locals and expatriates alike.
Although the storyline itself, is nothing special, the writing is so atmospheric and descriptive that it is a fascinating snapshot and insight to life between post-independence from Britain (1960) and pre-Turkish invasion era of Cyprus (1974). The author, Marian Engel, writes with such beautiful descriptive words (peccadillo; umbel; insalubrious; peregrination; ululations; portentously; caravansera; oriels; corsair; montebank etc. etc. ) that it’s hard not to be transported to 1960s Cyprus with her, (albeit with a dictionary close at hand!) sipping black coffees in cheap cafes and getting lost in the maze of ancient honey coloured passageways.
So a 4 stars from me, more for the history and English language lessons, than the story. But it was a really enjoyable education for me.
The novel is set on the island of Cyprus, in the northern, more predominantly Turkish, part of the island. The story reflects a period very close to when the author herself lived there, which was the early 1960s (she and her husband lived and worked on Cyprus around 1962–1964).
In the story, the book’s protagonist, Audrey Moore, receives a telegram summoning her to Cyprus to care for her ex- husband. However, when she arrives, it quickly becomes apparent that neither he wants to spend time with her, nor she with him. Having travelled all the way to Cyprus on a fool’s errand, she decides to take advantage of the situation and stay awhile, spending time experiencing life on the island, interacting with eccentric locals and expatriates alike.
Although the storyline itself, is nothing special, the writing is so atmospheric and descriptive that it is a fascinating snapshot and insight to life between post-independence from Britain (1960) and pre-Turkish invasion era of Cyprus (1974). The author, Marian Engel, writes with such beautiful descriptive words (peccadillo; umbel; insalubrious; peregrination; ululations; portentously; caravansera; oriels; corsair; montebank etc. etc. ) that it’s hard not to be transported to 1960s Cyprus with her, (albeit with a dictionary close at hand!) sipping black coffees in cheap cafes and getting lost in the maze of ancient honey coloured passageways.
So a 4 stars from me, more for the history and English language lessons, than the story. But it was a really enjoyable education for me.
October 13, 2023
For a long time I haunt olive merchants, speaking to them in borrowed words.
Monodromos is a somber and intensively sensitive read. The story takes place in the island of Cyprus where the female protagonist, through her deepening involvement with the island’s life, examines the contemporary life of local women and their various relationships in the society along with their personal affairs and comes to the conclusion that this place, for her, is a monodromos, in Greek - a one-way street.
[…] The island lies yellow and skinny and underfed in the weaking sun, resigned and lazy. Aphrodite fetched up along the coast there on her seashell […].
Monodromos is a somber and intensively sensitive read. The story takes place in the island of Cyprus where the female protagonist, through her deepening involvement with the island’s life, examines the contemporary life of local women and their various relationships in the society along with their personal affairs and comes to the conclusion that this place, for her, is a monodromos, in Greek - a one-way street.
[…] The island lies yellow and skinny and underfed in the weaking sun, resigned and lazy. Aphrodite fetched up along the coast there on her seashell […].
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews