The Widows

by Suzette Mayr

Hannelore, Clotilde, and Frau Schnadelhuber are three old women tired of living in a world which does not allow old women to be seen or heard. Deciding to shake their fists at such a world, the three women plot to go over Niagara Falls in a bright orange space-age barrel. With the assistance of Cleopatra Maria, the 26-year-old genius granddaughter of Hannelore and grandniece of Clotilde, the four women steal the barrel from a travelling show and drive it across Canada determined to prove their worth to a world devoted to youth.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Queer, Adventure, Humor, Canada, Feminism

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Suzette Mayr is the author of five novels including her most recent, Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall. Her fourth novel, Monoceros, won the ReLit Award and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, was long-listed for the 2011 Giller Prize, nominated for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction, and included on The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2011.

Her first novel, Moon Honey, was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book and Best Novel prizes. The Widows, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canadian-Caribbean region.

Mayr is past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and teaches creative writing in the English Department at the University of Calgary where she was the 2002-2003 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence.

Reviews

[Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little novel is ADORABLE. I'm so glad to have stumbled upon it, having loved Suzette Mayr's Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall. This one is earlier, slightly more focused, and laugh-out-loud funny -- the audiobook, released in 2020 (the original publication is 1998), is enhanced by a fantastic performance by Maureen Jones. Loved the takes on aging, sexuality (and aging sexuality!), and sisterhood. Genuine, warm, whimsical and wonderful.

[Story · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a blast! Three old ladies, tired of how they are treated, run away from home intending to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Action, adventure, romance and comedy ensue. Recommended for anyone who had a German grandmother or who enjoyed 'The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared'.

[🌻 · Rating 1 out of 5]

to był błąd

[Madelyn Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
While writing about the very real invisibility older women can feel, Mayr has managed to create a humourous, page-turning, novel referencing a historic event. Follow these three senior German women in Canada (just saying their names, Hannelore, Clotilde, Frau Schnadelhuber, and the granddaughter Cleopatra Maria, makes me smile) as they navigate work, families, sexuality, and the zest of life. I mean, why not go over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Very quirky. A page-turner. Recommended.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a little bit to get into the swing of this book, but once I did, I absolutely fell in love. It is a book about three German women, two of the of them sisters, and their grand daughter. It skips back-and-forth in time. The grandmothers all have small stories of their time in Germany during World War II, but that is not the main plot of the book. They are inspired by Annie Taylor, who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. They find a barrel, take it, and use it to go over the falls. Annie Taylor was a real person, the characters and plot in this book are fictional. It is a short and sweet read, but funny, heartfelt, and I love reading a book set primarily in Canada. The women in this book are all intelligent, sassy, sure of themselves, and do what they want. It is a fun, lighthearted book, but there are deeper themes of love, family, feminism, adventure, and wanting to lead of a filled life. In the end, the women encounter the ghost of Annie Taylor, and make friends with her. All in all, it was a very good book and I am glad I read it. I wish I could give it 4.5 stars out of five, just because it isn’t my most favorite book that I’ve ever read.

[Michaela Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so funny. I loved the playfulness of the novel, and the dialogue was sharp and realistic. Each character's voice was unique and memorable. I did find the elements with the haunting and the mind reading to be jarring, as they were included in the novel so infrequently. Otherwise, I thought the novel was excellent.

[Shauna Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most enjoyable read. I loved the format. It made it easy to read and just keep turning the pages. Will recommend this one to my friends.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hacía bastante que no leía un libro con mujeres mayores como protagonistas de la historia. Me alegro de que se haya acabado eso.

En esta novela seguimos a tres mujeres alemanas que acaban viajando a Canadá para visitar a su familia. En esa visita se enamoran de las cataratas del Niágara. Descubren que ha habido gente que ha sobrevivido a esa caída. Y, finalmente, deciden tirarse dentro de un barril.

La base de la trama es un tanto extraña pero tiene una finalidad muy clara. La intención es mostrar cómo nuestra sociedad deja de lado a las mujeres cuando llegan a cierta edad. Estos personajes demuestran que siguen teniendo sueños, siguen siendo capaces de hacer cosas, siguen viviendo sus relaciones. Es un mensaje bonito que se incluye en una trama descabellada.

La historia se cuenta con muchos saltos temporales, cosa que está bien hasta cierto punto. Al principio me gustó mucho esa forma de contar las trama porque nos daba un trasfondo para los personajes pero, después, empezó a marearme un poco y me costó mucho más saber en qué momento se encontraban. Es una pena porque esos saltos nos dan un contexto muy importante de las situaciones en las que se habían visto las protagonistas.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were things I really liked about this novel, but I felt like the entire projected needed another round of revision to make it clearer. The book uses a scrambled chronology, showing scenes from across multiple years, and ultimately I didn't think that tactic was effective for the story. Though the narrative is detail-rich, I thought a lot of what we see is redundant, featuring multiple extended plot threads that echo or repeat or have the same outcome as each other. In contrast, there were threads I wanted to see way more of, including Clotilde and Frau Schnadelhuber's relationship as well as Hannelore's decision to go over the falls in the first place. The last thirty or so pages of this book is great, but I think the story takes way too long to get there, so it just feels like we're treading water for the entire novel waiting for the women to go over the falls (which I think the scrambled chronology is trying to offset, but the only effect that had on me was making me annoyed that I had to keep slogging through other scenes and bide my time).

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

***ACTUALLY RATED JUST 1 STAR***

It's probably just not for me. I think I'm the wrong audience for this book, but I noticed that there is only 46 ratings, and I don't want to tank the ratings for this book by throwing another 1 star review in there simply because it's not my kind of book.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic and imaginative story from Suzette Mayr. Really love these women and their (mis)adventure. Very entertaining and engaging.

[Emma]

Great writing style just not my kind of book

[Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful! This was both a wonderful story, and the audio edition is so well done.

[Rand Harker · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book begins well and has an interesting overall idea--what people (particularly, in this case, women, since the novel is fundamentally feminist in nature) will do when the world as a whole either shoves them aside or simply refuses to see that they are there. The idea of such women (two events one hundred years apart) going over Niagara Falls as a kind of public demonstration of their existence has a lot of possibilities. But the last fifth of the book, without preparation of any kind that I could perceive, metamorphoses into a kind of magic realism that results in an overall unravelling of the narrative. Also Mayr tries too hard to be stylistically unique; the sentence fragments especially grate at least on my sensibilities.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

A fabulous means of talking about what no one wants to talk about: seniors are actually people too! And young people are not all they pretend to be. With charm and wit The Widows tells the story of three women well over 60 who can't stand being invisible or ignored anymore, so they take a dive over Niagra falls.