Little Sister

by Barbara Gowdy

The farthest place you can go is closer than you can imagine.

Rose is a sensible woman, thirty-four years old. Together with her widowed mother, Fiona, she runs a small repertory cinema in a big city. Fiona is in the early stages of dementia and is beginning to make painful references to Rose’s sister, Ava, who died young in an accident.

It is high summer, and a band of storms, unusual for their frequency and heavy downpour, is rolling across the city. Something unusual is also happening to Rose. As the storms break overhead, she loses consciousness and has vivid, realistic dreams—not only about being someplace else, but also of living someone else’s life.

Is Rose merely dreaming? Or is she, in fact, inside the body of another woman? Disturbed and entranced, she tries to find out what is happening to her.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, Paranormal, Canadian Literature

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 23, 2017

About the author

Barbara Gowdy is the author of seven books, including Helpless, The Romantic, The White Bone, Mister Sandman, We So Seldom Look on Love and Falling Angels, all of which have met with widespread international acclaim. A three-time finalist for The Governor General’s Award, two-time finalist for The Scotia Bank Giller Prize, The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, winner of the Marian Engel Award and The Trillium Book Prize, Gowdy has been longlisted for The Man Booker Prize. She has been called “a miraculous writer” by the Chicago Tribune, and in 2005 Harper’s magazine described her as a “terrific literary realist” who has “refused to subscribe to worn-out techniques and storytelling methods.” Born in Windsor, Ontario, she lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizarre but strangely bland. Managed to complete it and then wondered why I'd bothered.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Sister had such a fabulous premise and was well written, but unfortunately the story really didn't *GO* anywhere. What started out as a page turner eventually just fizzled into an incredibly anticlimactic ending. I was really disappointed with this one.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

She and Ava returned to how they'd been, except Rose was listless and sad. She felt demoted, having to play with her little sister after learning how to identify native plants and build a lean-to with an older girl who was a genius and had the third eye.

Little Sister is an odd little book: An examination of consciousness and personhood, it has magical realism, intriguing mystery, and pleasing craftsmanship, but despite really fine writing about grief and guilt and their longterm effects, I didn't connect emotionally to this story at all; I was superficially interested and impressed, but left cold. Somehow, I expect this book will grow on me over time as I can't stop thinking about it; this book has planted roots.

Rose Bowan is the co-owner, with her slipping-into-dementia mother, of a repertory movie theater in Toronto. Thirty-four, overwhelmed with the responsibility of the family business, embroiled in a longterm but casual relationship with the latest in a string of offbeat men, suffering the weight of childhood trauma, Rose has a strange “episode” at the height of thunderstorm season: With the first booming thunderclap, Rose is mentally transported into the body of another woman – Harriet, a sophisticated book editor – and although Rose can feel Harriet's sensations and emotions, she has no control over the other woman's actions. Over within a few minutes, Rose returns to her own body and wonders, “What was that?” and “Why did this Harriet have the same stunning green eyes as my little sister?” When further episodes reveal that Harriet is real (and local!), Rose attempts to track her down, and as Harriet's situation becomes more urgent, Rose starts driving towards storm clouds; hoping to prompt an episode and find a way to influence Harriet's behaviour.

There was a sound like an electrical short, and then deafness, and then, without Harriet, on her own, she was a million miles above Earth, orbiting sooty smudges and silver shafts that found shape and became demons and angels, hideously elastic demons pissing into rusty tin cans, slender stone angels extending glass goblets.

The book flips between the today of 2005 and the time of Rose's childhood, starting in 1982. Slips in consciousness are not totally foreign to Rose: as a child, she met an older girl named Shannon – a self-proclaimed genius with the gift of the third eye that made her unbeatable at cards – and together, they attempted a vision quest; an effort to inhabit the bodies of the Oneida who once lived in their Ontario woodlands:

Her voice was lost to the clamour of singing women, a kind of yelling-singing. Rose couldn't understand the words. She stood barefoot on a smooth rock across from a naked baby girl who lay propped up in a crib. The bottom of the crib was wrapped in white fur. Smoky planks of light fell between the trees. Dogs barked. An old man danced in a tight circle and stabbed his spear at the air. The baby gurgled. Her bristly hair seemed to be on fire, but that was an effect of the sun.

When tragedy struck her family, Rose went into a state of shock that saw her insisting that the true events of that day were those that she had only dreamed of a few nights before. And this is where everything goes circular: In the present, when Rose describes the first “episode” to her boyfriend, he assumes it is a dream (probably prompted by MSG in her Chinese food dinner). When Rose's research reveals that her episode might be a “silent migraine”, the boyfriend latches onto that – and it's interesting that not only is he a meteorologist (who can warn Rose when thunderstorms are coming), but an employee at the theater is forced to leave early one night with a migraine. Everything feels circular in this book: Rose seems only attracted to polymath geniuses (like the girl, Shannon, that she had known so briefly); both her father and her boyfriend spent their spare time writing manuscripts (that Harriet might consider); Rose's mother is losing her mind in the present while their old neighbour, Gordon, from the past was literally losing his brain as tumours were carved away from it (and from dreams to visions to dementia to brain cancer, these are all presented as altered forms of consciousness that shine a light back on Rose and her episodes). Without giving away any spoilers, I'll note that Rose is self-aware of the coincidence behind why she is so desperate to influence Harriet, and for that matter, much is made of coincidence and “messages from the universe”:

Rose saw the words Temet Nosce. Know thyself, she translated, remembering it from somewhere. It seemed like a message to her personally, like a postscript to the episode: get your own head straight before hanging around in someone else's.

I liked the characters and the portrayal of the familiar areas of Toronto; there is a necessary believability to the dialogue and the setting and the people's behaviours that shore up the more fantastical aspects of the plot. But were the more fantastical aspects necessary? That may be the barrier that prevented me from fully connecting to Little Sister, but yet, I can't deny that it was expertly crafted: Barbara Gowdy perfectly achieved the book she set out to write; I guess it just wasn't perfectly the book I sat down to read.

[Michelle E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Sister by Barbara Gowdy

Whenever a thunderstorm goes by, Rose finds herself inside another woman, Harriet. Rose loses consciousness and is able to see, hear and experience everything Harriet is experiencing. She finds that the “Harriet” state is so delicious, she cannot wait for the next thunderstorm to go by, even if it means driving towards one. She tells no one about the “Harriet” states and soon finds that she is no longer as interested in her own life, and her own boyfriend.

If that were not enough, Rose’s mother has dementia. What is Fiona going to do or say next?

Additionally, there’s that new employee, Lloyd, the ex-con. Is he stealing from them?

I found this book to be an interesting read, but felt it lacked something. More about Rose’s little sister, perhaps?

3 stars out of 5

Publication Date: 23 May 2017

Thanks to Tin House Books and Netgalley for this Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a unique magical realist premise (during thunderstorms one Toronto woman Rose had episodes where she's transported into the body of another as a kind of observer) it's surprising that this novel is as bland as it is. I just felt like it didn't do much or go anywhere. The contemporary story is offset by a narrative in Rose's youth around when her sister Ava died in an accident. I'm uneasy about the inclusion of an early implication of future sexual abuse of a child which then didn't even occur. It didn't seem necessary to the narrative and left me feeling anxious about returning to that plot in a way that knowing Ava was going to die didn't.The woman that Rose visits becomes a kind of stand in sister but the ending to this part of the story was anti-climactic.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Sister is one of those books that has such a good premise and idea behind the characters but then gets really underserved by the construction. It takes so long to get to WHY Rose becomes so obsessed with Harriet and how the two of them might be connected (or not) that I was having trouble staying with the story. It should not have taken me this long to read. Fiona was a great character.

(Thanks to Tin House Galley Club for the ARC)

[Patty MacDonald]

I wanted to like it but the ending was such a disappointment. Never tied up the loose ends.

[Melissa George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gowdy's most recent novel is a solid 3.5 stars. It was entertaining, intriguing and extraordinarily well-written. Her employ of magical realism was exciting and I found that I could relate to the main character. During a thunderstorm, Rose discovers that she is transported into the body of a woman she has never met. From these random snapshots of another woman's life, Rose learns to come to terms with her own struggles and demons.

Little Sister is a great read from a well-respected and highly talented Canadian author.

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Gowdy’s Little Sister explores ideas of normative minds and constructions of normative psychology. Fiona has gradually been experiencing progressive dementia, experiencing changes in her memory and perception of the world around her. Her daughter, Rose, begins to experience what she calls “episodes” during every storm. She begins to have breaks in consciousness where she seems to be seeing the world through the eyes of another woman, Harriet. She is uncertain if she is having delusions, hallucinations, migraines, or whether she is actually experiencing the life of another woman and seeing the world through her eyes.

Gowdy examines the plasticity of the mind and questions ideas of the “normal” functioning of the mind by illustrating that the mind is changeable and always shifting. Rose had buried the memory of her sister who died when she was young, trying not to think about her, but her mother’s dementia and her discovery that Harriet’s eyes are similar to those of her sister have brought up memories of the past, causing her to examine her own feelings of guilt and her memories of the past. Gowdy examines ideas of memory through the lens of dementia (which is socially constructed as a return to an earlier period in one’s memory), and through the notion of out of body experiences.

To find a longer version of my review, visit my disability website at https://disabledembodiment.wordpress....

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

True rating 3.5 stars and spoiler alert. This book started out so well and is very well written. In fact, I couldn't put if down and thought it was going to be at least a 4 star read for me. With about 10 pages left this morning I had to leave for work, but was looking forward to finishing it on my lunch break. Now I'm sitting here in a daze. A gripping story just fell flat on its face. I mean I think I understand that Rose is now able to move on because she thinks she may have somehow saved Harriet's baby after not saving her own sister years ago, but it was just so anticlimactic! I think the ending could have been fleshed out a lot more.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read Canadian writer Barbara Gowdy in years but remember her for the eccentrism of her earlier works like Mister Sandman and the necrophilia story from We So Seldom Look on Love. But something about this new novel just didn't jibe. With subject matter dealing with quasi-metaphysical events and unexplained identity switching (moving into and out of another's body and mind), I thought it required more weirdness in its approach, and less day-to-day direct storytelling, maybe more unsettling, uncanny elements that throw the reader off-kilter, like you might read in Helen Oyeyemi or a Kathryn Davis novel (e.g., Duplex). This just seemed very conventional, and too quotidian. But the New York Times reviewer called this "[A] supernatural domestic thriller and a crackling tour de force," so I must have missed something or failed to read it in the way intended.

[Angélique (MapleBooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In France, where I grew up, Little Sister would be at home in my favourite genre: le fantastique. As Wikipedia describes it: “What is distinctive about the fantastique is the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative.” Fantastique is my favourite genre because it very much deals with how we human reacts in the face of events we don't understand. Do we freak out? Do we try to find a rational explanation? Do we take advantage of it? Or maybe all three, just like in Little Sister.

The main character of Gowdy's new novel is Rose, the manager of a struggling independent movie theatre whom she inherited from her late father. She is very badly overworked. Also, her mother is developing dementia and recently started blurting out dirty jokes. As to her boyfriend, he is a nerd of the obnoxious type who turns any emotional statement into an Ikea instruction manual. It's fair to say that Rose is somewhat dispirited.
Then, on a Toronto stormy day, a clap of thunder gives Rose a glimpse to another existence. She becomes a voiceless host in a mysterious woman's body, and witnesses a few minutes of what seems an incomparably more exciting life.
Just as suddenly, she's back in her own body, stunned and nose-bleeding. As she scrambles to make sense of her experience, a few other storms lash Toronto the following days and cause similar “episodes”, offering a fuller and maybe bleaker picture of the mysterious woman Rose is inhabiting.

So, her boyfriend blames the whole thing on migraines and food additives. Rose, on the other hand, decides to search for the mysterious woman. As for me, I was wondering if she was simply losing it, in some kind of epic delusional burnout. This is why Little Sister screams Fantastique to me: the doubt surrounding the main character's sanity as well as how her attitude evolves towards the “episodes” as they keep coming. (note: you do get to know if the mysterious woman exists or not... if you read the book).
This points at the strength of Little Sister: the characters, their development and expression. The book has such a collection of fascinating, vividly fleshed out characters that I find it worth reading just for that. I enjoyed how Rose matured through the story, and how the personality of the mysterious woman subtly “bled out” on her. Rose's mother Fiona is such an attaching and humourous character despite—or maybe because of—her condition. Rose's boyfriend is hilarious, although mostly because he isn't mine. The ex-convict new employee at the theatre brought some gentle wisdom to the story.
Under Gowdy's pen, characters appear unique and alive, and most importantly they seem real. The writing is so natural that Little Sister feels like a memoire at times. I really appreciated Gowdy's talent.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for this book was cut short by the story's unspectacular ending. First, major questions are left unanswered. Second, it is so mundane and anti-climatic in regards to the extraordinary experience of Rose! Even though it had a heartwarming quality to it, my first—and subsequent—thought was “oh, that's it?”. I was really expecting more.

Nevertheless, I can't ignore the great time I had with the characters of Little Sister: it was captivating, humourous and relaxing to read. Because the ending might leave you a bit deflated, I'd recommend to focus on the journey more than the destination. Indeed Little Sister's plot is a bit weak yet it is hard to hold a grudge when the storytelling is so good.
Now, have a nice week everybody :)

[Natasha Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply Written, Beautifully Done

My first book by this author but hopefully not my last. Starting off I wasn't really sure what to expect but the more I read, the more entrenched I became. The concept us relatively unique but what the author did with it is what made the story. Its a story within a story, two lives happening at once. All the characters are so well done. The dialogue is so realistic. All in all a great story to read if you want to get lost and then find a little bit of yourself.

[Victoria Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evocative and frightening - expertly drawn characters and storytelling.

[Trevor Klundert · Rating 3 out of 5]

In short, the book had a momentum for about three quarters of the way through but then it felt as if the author hit a wall and didn’t have an exit plan on how to wrap the story up.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gowdy has given us readers something profound and unique to ponder over with her protagonist Rose Bowan. Every time a thunderstorm hits, Rose loses consciousness and has visions inhabiting another woman’s body. And while inside that body, Rose witnesses actions and emotions of ‘Harriet’, a professional woman who’s life is about upended by a pregnancy due to a affair with a married co-worker. And while Rose is encased by Harriet’s life and emotions, she begins to ponder her own relationships – a boyfriend, a mother with dementia, a sister who mysterious passed away years ago. It is through Rose’s eyes and thoughts, readers are given ground to carefully consider their own relationships in their lives.

http://tinyurl.com/ychqbd4c

[Suzy Dominey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very easy to read will try the author again

[K.N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Sister opens with intriguing characters and an unsettling scene that immediately drew me into Rose's experience.

Out of the blue, Rose finds herself slipping into a dream state when the weather grows stormy. Not only is she "somewhere else" but she's within "someone else", slipping into the body of another woman and experiencing bits and pieces of her life. She can't quite explain these episodes and this strange connection drives her to learn more about this woman she occasionally inhabits.

The experience dredges up a dark secret regarding Rose and her little sister. Rose's journey is both unique and suspenseful, forcing her to reconcile her past and face the present.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, a suspenseful read that balanced both dark and light story elements. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys women's fiction, the supernatural, and soft science fiction because Gowdy has managed to combine them all into a moving tale with an air of expectancy.

[Lynette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers.

There was no purpose or reason to any of it, and it was all pretty weak. No real resolutions, just kind of one character piece after another. No reason as to why Rose was having these episodes, and they didn't accomplish anything. And the way that Ava died was confusing and pathetic. At least it was a quick read.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's not often that I give books 1 star, but this was just so disappointing? It started out as a great premise with the always-interesting addition of magical realism, but it never went anywhere.
[spoilers below]


Promises made at the beginning were never fulfilled: for example, Fiona doesn't really start talking about Ava's death so much as wondering where her second daughter is, which to me just seemed to be the effects of her dementia; we are never told why it is these two women who have this strange connection beyond Rose noticing (and fixating) on Harriet's eyes which remind her of Ava; it is never explained if this has ever happened before with any other thunderstorms. This last point raises more questions: if it has, why is Rose so shocked and confused? If not, why this thunderstorm, why now? And then to have that connection suddenly severed is equally startling since there is no explanation given. I can understand magic realism being part of the story, but there's no discussion of what might have triggered the onset of Rose's "episodes" or why they stopped.

The plot seems driving toward a much more satisfying conclusion, but it's never given. I was waiting for Harriet to have some kind of connection to Ava (or even be Ava herself somehow) but that never happened. And I was left with the ultimate question of "so what?" unresolved. It felt weirdly superficial, despite the wealth of minute details, and left me wondering why I had bothered to read it.

[Jane Demuth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wildly bland, in the way that only pot boiler mysteries, romances, and supernatural thrillers can be. I didn't care about any of the characters, and the plot line was far too convoluted and ridiculous to carry the simple themes of loss and connection the author slipped in. So, if you're into that sort of thing, have at it, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm not quite sure why I walked out of the bookstore with this the other day, honestly.

Does that sound bitchy? Yeah... I guess. Sorry.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is better than many books but not as good as most Barbara Gowdy books. It might be not as good as any of her other books. But it left me just wanting to read any/ every other BG novel again instead of this one.

[Tanya Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Gowdy masterpiece!

Barbara Gowdy captures the reader once again with her brilliant descriptions, and the human frailties so often put on display. You will not be disappointed.

[JM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like this is her last novel, although I hope she changes her mind. And it's a great one!

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was utterly sold on this novel until the last ten pages or so. Now I'm preoccupied trying to decide how I wanted it to end. Gowdy's writing is amazing as always.

[Dr. Eva-Maria Obermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose führt das Kino ihres verstorbenen Vaters zusammen mit ihrer an Demenz leidenden Mutter. Da beginnt sie in den Sommergewittern das Bewusstsein zu verlieren und sich im Körper einer anderen Frau wiederzufinden. Fasziniert von diesem so anderen, aufwühlenden Lebe sucht Rose ihre eigenen Aussetzer. Das fremde Drama, das sie so gerne steuern möchte. Gleichzeitig taucht in ihr selbst die Erinnerung an ein ganz anderes Drama auf, den Tod ihrer jüngeren Schwester Ava, an die die Fremde sie so sehr erinnert.

Kleine Schwester ist ein Buch über Fluchten. Anders kann ich es gar nicht ausdrücken. Rose flüchtet vor ihrem eigenen Leben, ihren Erinnerungen und Entscheidungen in das Leben der Fremde. Die Obsession, dieses Leben zu retten, in dem sie doch nur Zuschauerin ist. Hier wirkt das Motiv des Kinos umso mehr. Das Mitfiebern, der Wunsch nach Erlösung und die eigene Befriedigung, wenn sie auf der Leinwand eintritt. Die Metapher für die Flucht aus dem Alltag, aber auch die Flucht vor den eigenen Problemen.
Und Probleme hat Rose genug. Nicht nur die Mutter, deren Aussetzer nur eine andere Art von Parallelismus zu Roses eigener Situation beschreiben, sondern auch die Vorurteile ihres Lebens, die Beziehung zu einem Mann, der nur oberflächlich zu ihr passt. Viele Feinheiten und tief dahinter das Trauma um ihre Schwester Ava. Verdrängung, jede Menge, aber auch die Suche nach dem, was das Leben noch zu bieten hat.

Elementar dahinter ist die Frage, wie Rose sich selbst sieht. Durch ihr Eintauchen in das fremde Leben kann sie etwas erfahren, was ihr selbst immer fremd sein wird. Dass diese Selbstfindung so nah an Tochter, Schwester aber auch Mutterschaft ausgemacht wird, hat mich leicht irritiert. Rose definiert sich nicht über sich selbst, sondern über das Fremdbild ihrer Mitmenschen. Das ist ihr Problem und löst sich auch eher durch die Notwendigkeit. Sie beginnt erst aktiv zu werden, als sie glaubt, ihre Passivität wieder gut machen zu können.
Dabei spielt der Roman mit den Erwartungen des Lesers immer wieder auf alles Zeitebenen. Ein großer Vorteil in diesem Buch voller Innensichten, dass der Leser sich verbunden fühlt und dennoch außen vor bleibt. Rose sieht die Welt durch die Augen einer anderen, das Fremdbild wird geradezu perfektioniert, während der Leser nie richtig eintauchen kann. Ein sonderbares Spiel um die Perspektiven, das seinen Reiz hat.

Vielleicht ist es darum auch weniger die Handlung an und für sich, die fesselt, als die Blickwinkel und Reflektionen dahinter. Nicht zuletzt, die Reflektion auf sich selbst und das eigene Leben. Aber auch auf die Spiegelung der anderen, die wir absichtlich oder unabsichtlich durchleben. Wo fängt da eigentlich das wirkliche ICH an. Eine spannende Frage, die Kleine Schwester behandelt, aber nicht beantwortet. Muss es auch nicht. So wie sich die Gewitter bricht auch Rose aus und wird zur Akteurin. Die Entwicklung dahin ist spannend zu betrachtet.

[Maria Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Barbara Gowdy, though I have read, like the first pages or so, of other of her works. I'm of mixed feelings here; I seem to say this about all my recent "good" reads, that the author seems so smart, that I am very impressed with them, etc etc, but that they go on with maybe too much detail about how A got from B to C...which as I keep harping, IS impressive in that they have such vision I suppose they were born to be writers, and gosh if they don't have a way with words, poetic or philosophical or quirky or just plain smart and with such knowledge (research?) and great vocabulary, (meanwhile I continue to meet dictionary-shaped roadblocks that slow me down but perhaps also teach this old dog a thing or two, some of which sticks and some of which does not.)
OK cut the crap Maria, What did you think? (I must say, sometimes the things that impress me are simultaneously the things that annoy or exhaust me, see above.) Little Sister is short, at a scant 300 pages that are quite pleasant to flip, as there is not a great deal of copy on each page, due to smallish size and lots of dailogue, --plus the rag edge of the paper is a sensuous delight, one might expect as much from the ethereally lovely Gowdy? And considering the bizarreness of the story, where the main character Rose has supernatural, for lack of a better word, fits or episodes where she becomes not one but TWO different people besides herself for a total of three, but not always two at the same time, um, OK never mind, and i have not yet even looked at what other reviewers have said about this book...I can imagine there will be a lot of haters and people who lost patience, and did not even finish this fairly short novel (but then, there always are, aren't there?)
Here, why don't I just quote one of the bits that I LIKED a lot, and that I marked with a torn piece of paper for easy reference:
"Is there a word for the parents of a dead child?" she asked. They were on their second glass of wine. "The parent equivalent of an orphan?"
He took a sip of his wine. "I don't think so. We've got widow, widower."
"It's too horrible to have a word."
Or this other passage, also rather profound:
'From now on when she spoke to Harriet, she might really be heard, and to hear an inner voice separate from your own (a disembodied voice if ever there was one) would be like hearing the voice of God."
I can't help this feeling that "Little Sister" is somehow more of a really long short story than a novel. You know the way short stories are often more quirky and experimental than novels, and usually about just one thing? (which this book seems to qualify as being.)
In any case, Kudos to Gowdy for pulling off a difficult and odd story and making it work.

[Eden Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog

Little Sister is by Canadian writer Barbara Gowdy, who has been repeatedly nominated for every major Canadian book prize, including the Giller, the Man Booker, the Governor Generals Award, and was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2006.

Rose Bowen runs the Regal Repertory Theatre in Midtown Toronto, with her mother Fiona, and Lloyd, their handyman. Fiona causes Rose continued worry with her bouts of dementia; forgetting where the cash drawers went or standing at the concession naked. Rose has been dating Vince, a meteorologist, which comes in handy when predicting oncoming weather systems - for when a thunderstorm rolls through the city, Rose not only becomes disoriented and weak, she enters the body of another woman. Sometimes Harriet is having sex in her married boyfriend's car, or Rose watches through Harriet's eyes as she works in a local publishing house. Rose finds out the office actually exists, and Harriet does work there, alongside the boyfriend, just as Rose has seen. When Rose/Harriet looks into a mirror, Rose is struck by the similarity of Harriet's eyes to those of her sister Ava, who died as a child, and there is another plot as Rose remembers her youth. Tracking Harriet down, Rose encounters her friends and co-workers, discovers Harriet is pregnant, experiences deja vu when covering Harriet's trail, and attempts to arrive in the same place at the same time - will she then see herself through Harriet's eyes? Who will Rose be when this happens? The prediction is for thunderstorms all week.

Barbara Gowdy draws on magic realism in her novels, combining fantasy and reality (The White Bone is written from the perspective of African elephants). This is a captivating story, which sort of resolves, but not to my liking. Entering the body of another person, finding out it wasn't a delusion but the person in reality is alive and in the same city, I would think be an event you would completely pursue. For me, this just rolled to a finish I found disappointing after the build up. Well written in an effortless and insightful way, but ultimately lost momentum for me.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started it a few times before I was actually able to get into it. Pretty quick read. The prose was nice, easy to follow and see what was going on. Finally a depiction of a parent with dementia that wasn't repulsive to me. This book was set up a little to literary for me- if it had leaned harder into the mystery-thriller genre of how did Rose's little sister die, who is this other woman, what is her connection to Rose's sister, etc. But the vibe of the story was just too much 'this is about life' to get my heartrate going and my eyes flitting along the page. The abortion/hysterectomy convo was kinda.... strange? It served a specific point in the story, but out of context it would seem like this author is hugely anti-abortion and anti-hysterectomy and against the right to make self-informed choices regarding reproduction, which I don't think the author is. I enjoyed reading this book but the reviews made it sound like it was going to be a masterpiece, which it just wasn't, and answer all these questions about life and the universe, which it just didn't. I loved what I believed to be the ending, and even felt this emotional unclogging which is a rare but vital element to the experience of book reading. But then I turned the page and there was another chapter there! which I did not like for the ending, and which kinda negated previously made points? I say kinda negated because... the resolution of the protagonist's crux (astral projecting into another woman's body) didn't resolve so much as it fell away. The causation wasn't explained, and the causation of the end of the episodes wasn't explained either. And not in a 'wow, isn't mother earth so mysterious' way, but a 'wasn't that weird? well, it's over now' way. So there wasn't much left over to negate. This story was a fun read, especially factoring in the speed of the read. The characters were really rich and real, and Rose's POV felt natural and firm -- I got the sense she was at once very strong and willing, and very afraid, weak, and cautious. The emotional energy wasn't built up enough for me (I like to get really lost and excited and feel all knotted up) but I would read other work by this author!

[Steven Langdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara Gowdy has written some novels that I have greatly enjoyed (such as "The White Bone.") But this book was eccentric and left me feeling less positive.

Rose helps run her family cinema, engaging by email with patrons of her second-run films, caring for her declining mother, and maintaining a desultory relationship with a middle-aged weatherman. Then suddenly she starts to experience intense out-of-body experiences in which she seems to become Harriet, a younger sexually charged woman carrying on an affair with someone in the publishing house where she works. Is this just a day-dream, set off by dissatisfaction that Rose feels? Yet it is so real that she sets out to investigate -- and it turns out Harriet is a real person that Rose is able to meet and talk with.

The backdrop to this time-travelling bit of other-worldlyness turns out to be a dramatic story in its own right -- and the tie to Harriet develops a set of new dimensions. It all kept me engaged and turning the pages.

Yet I felt that neither Rose nor Harriet was very well developed as a character. And the plot, I have to say, ended up seeming more far-fetched than I'd expected. Gowdy writes very well, and her sketches of Toronto are compelling, but I'll look for better from her next novel.