What do you think?
Rate this book
The Chrome Suite
Book by Birdsell, Sandra
364 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1992
54 people want to read
About the author
Sandra Birdsell
18 books15 followersSandra Louise Birdsell (née Bartlette) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage.
Sandra is the fifth of eleven children. She lived most of her life in Morris, Manitoba and now in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Sandra left home at age fifteen. At the age of thirty-five, she enrolled in Creative Writing at the University Of Winnipeg. Five years later, Turnstone Press published her first book, the “Night Travellers” and two years after, “Ladies Of The House”. Both are published in one volume as Agassiz stories.
Two events shaped her worldview and influenced her writing, the first when Sandra was six years-old. Her sister died from leukemia. That left a four year gap before her next older sister. She felt alone even surrounded by 9 siblings. Her loneliness led her to ponder nearby parks and rivers, allowing her imagination to be wild.
The second event was the massive flood of Morris in 1950. Her first three successful stories in “Night Travellers” are based on it.
She is a Mom of three children and Grandma to four. Her husband, Jan Zarzycki is a filmmaker.
Sandra is the fifth of eleven children. She lived most of her life in Morris, Manitoba and now in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Sandra left home at age fifteen. At the age of thirty-five, she enrolled in Creative Writing at the University Of Winnipeg. Five years later, Turnstone Press published her first book, the “Night Travellers” and two years after, “Ladies Of The House”. Both are published in one volume as Agassiz stories.
Two events shaped her worldview and influenced her writing, the first when Sandra was six years-old. Her sister died from leukemia. That left a four year gap before her next older sister. She felt alone even surrounded by 9 siblings. Her loneliness led her to ponder nearby parks and rivers, allowing her imagination to be wild.
The second event was the massive flood of Morris in 1950. Her first three successful stories in “Night Travellers” are based on it.
She is a Mom of three children and Grandma to four. Her husband, Jan Zarzycki is a filmmaker.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 19, 2009
Hard to talk about. Hard to read; it took me a couple of months of off-and-on again reading to get through it. Clearly well-written, prose-wise. (Even if her dwelling on awkward unpleasant details, like Amy's disgusting eating habits or her plastic teeth, rather turned me off.) But the different events didn't seem to fit together into anything like a plot. I couldn't understand why she'd chosen to discuss the particular situations from her character's life that she did. I still feel that I must have been missing something, some resonance that would have made all the disparate happenings fit together. What was the point?
December 14, 2016
I am 3/4 of the way through this book, and the only reason I've hung on this long is because I really liked The Russlander. But I finally decided (later than I should have) that this is simply not worth my time. My guide for reading is that books need to be either enlightening or entertaining and this is neither. It is dismal and hopeless, and if there's a better ending, I can't say I really care.
July 24, 2021
This is a good book. Before I purchased it for $1 (a blessing of a discount, I only had $3 on me at the time, I had lost my wallet) I flipped open to a random page and was moved to take it with me. I don’t remember what exactly I read, but I’m thankful I trusted the whole based solely on the part I read. It took me a while to get through only because I did not have book finishing discipline when I started. When I chose to restart the story, I was drawn into the life of Amy Barber and knew I needed to follow this through.
The story is raw and authentic; the storytelling winds through past, present, and future in a way that feels true to how memories are connected. Sandra Birdsell is generous with details but never to the point of unnecessary or gratuitous inclusion. She has created characters that are full people, with all their flaws, motivations, strengths and demerits. In her novel, Birdsell crafts tremendous relationships between ordinary people that truly moved me throughout the experience. Shifting from first to third person at times, we experience the stormy life Amy Barber weathers throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. These are the events that create a person, and this story is who Amy Barber is and how she became. This novel feels turbulent in the way that life truly can be, and Birdsell’s voice that carried me through this read makes me interested in reading more from her.
The story is raw and authentic; the storytelling winds through past, present, and future in a way that feels true to how memories are connected. Sandra Birdsell is generous with details but never to the point of unnecessary or gratuitous inclusion. She has created characters that are full people, with all their flaws, motivations, strengths and demerits. In her novel, Birdsell crafts tremendous relationships between ordinary people that truly moved me throughout the experience. Shifting from first to third person at times, we experience the stormy life Amy Barber weathers throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. These are the events that create a person, and this story is who Amy Barber is and how she became. This novel feels turbulent in the way that life truly can be, and Birdsell’s voice that carried me through this read makes me interested in reading more from her.
February 8, 2012
Hmmmm not sure about this one. It took a very long time to get into, then got interesting for a little while in the middle to end, then slowed down again at the way end. I think this is one of those books that the critics really like (lots of descriptions, etc.) but is not so reader-friendly in terms of plot.
March 8, 2011
Intricately woven threads of Amy's life, then and now. It took me a bit to catch the scriptwriting thread, but when I got it, I loved it. It wasn't a bowtie. It was a knot!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews