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Crackpot
Hoda, the protagonist of Crackpot , is one of the most captivating characters in Canadian fiction. Graduating from a tumultuous childhood to a life of prostitution, she becomes a legend in her neighbourhood, a canny and ingenious woman, generous, intuitive, and exuding a wholesome lust for life.
Resonant with myth and superstition, this radiant novel is a joyous celebration of life and the mystery that is at the heart of all experience.
Resonant with myth and superstition, this radiant novel is a joyous celebration of life and the mystery that is at the heart of all experience.
440 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Adele Wiseman
15 books6 followersAdele Wiseman was a Canadian author. Her parents were Russian-Jews who emigrated from the Ukraine to Canada, in part, to escape the pogroms that accompanied the Russian Civil War.
In 1956, Wiseman published her first novel, The Sacrifice, which won the Governor General's Award. Her only other novel, Crackpot, was published in 1974. Wiseman also published plays, children's stories, essays, and other non-fiction.
In 1956, Wiseman published her first novel, The Sacrifice, which won the Governor General's Award. Her only other novel, Crackpot, was published in 1974. Wiseman also published plays, children's stories, essays, and other non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 4, 2016
Oh, Hoda, how I will miss you. I really will. I'll be thinking of you for years to come. You got right inside of me, right into my heart and my head. You opened up what I thought was already an open mind, and stretched it just a little bit further. You were unique and uncomfortable and heartfelt. You were incredible. I am truly going to miss you -- and I can't say that that's happened very often for a fictional character.
Oh, Adele Wiseman, how sad I am that I'm only discovering you decades after your death, and that we'll never get a new book from you. Thank you for your incredible writing, your command of language, your creativity and the inspiration you've provided about the limitless way to use words and convey emotion.
This book is so unique, and so loving. With just a few pages left I actually shed tears at the thought of leaving the main character Hoda behind. What would happen to her? How could I help her? The ending was completely satisfying, and really the only ending that could have worked. There were some crazy scenes in this book I could never have guessed, and could never have imagined, and yet it all wrapped up intelligently and emotionally.
I LOVE this book. One of the best-ever. Amazing how 43 years after its publication, it's still so relevant.
Oh, Adele Wiseman, how sad I am that I'm only discovering you decades after your death, and that we'll never get a new book from you. Thank you for your incredible writing, your command of language, your creativity and the inspiration you've provided about the limitless way to use words and convey emotion.
This book is so unique, and so loving. With just a few pages left I actually shed tears at the thought of leaving the main character Hoda behind. What would happen to her? How could I help her? The ending was completely satisfying, and really the only ending that could have worked. There were some crazy scenes in this book I could never have guessed, and could never have imagined, and yet it all wrapped up intelligently and emotionally.
I LOVE this book. One of the best-ever. Amazing how 43 years after its publication, it's still so relevant.
May 22, 2023
Another good one!
This is a 1974 novel by the Jewish Canadian author Adele Wiseman, her second novel. The book tells the story of a baby born to impoverished immigrants, a mother who had a misshapen shoulder and who, still in the old country, was married off to a blind man who presumably wouldn't have to suffer from seeing her deformity. The mother, working all day as a cleaning woman, overfeeds the baby girl, Hoda, to pacify her, so that the child develops obesity almost from infancy. Before she can emerge from childhood, her mother dies, removing a potential source of guidance and advice from Hoda's life. But even before dying, the mother exhibits areas of gross misunderstanding of life in the New World. For example, when Hoda tells her she's been "playing doctor" with her friends, the mother encourages her, thinking the child is demonstrating an interest in medicine. Eventually, looking for love and pleasure, the child falls early into life as a sex worker, and that's how she earns a living for herself and her blind dad. She is a thinker, and fat, fleshy, technicolor, big-hearted, larger than life, and with a good sense of right and wrong, her livelihood notwithstanding. Also her belief in herself and love of life is nearly irrepressible, even as she gradually loses her illusions and magical thinking. In spite of her life outside the norms of polite society, she sees through those norms, and, in her company, so does the reader. She's innocent despite all, and not out of naïveté.
At first I was thinking of this book as a tragicomedy, but it isn't tragic in the ordinary sense. The element of tragedy if present is not due to a fall into moral turpitude but instead, it's that because of her place and time, she cannot use her larger than life persona to create in the world what she might otherwise have been capable of. After I finished I thought maybe the book is better described as a bildungsroman. But not only that; I still think tragicomedy applies as well.
I'm going to give the book a theme song: Leonard Cohen's "Anthem." The chorus in particular applies:
Another connection is to the kabbalistic midrash of the cracked vessels, Hoda being a cracked pot who cannot hold all there is. Neither can any of us.
I didn't look up the author before reading the book, but just tonight I found a good biographical sketch from the Jewish Women's Archive: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/... Both her novels were set in Winnipeg's North End, an intense and insular community of Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Slavs, according to the write-up. I also noticed that she married the same year she had her one child, when she would have turned 41, and that she divorced two years before her death.
Her first book won great acclaim, but this one, being very different, did not; it took a while before Crackpot's greatness was hailed.
Just as well the book isn't widely rediscovered in the U.S. at this time, or there would be a huge rush to ban it.
This is a 1974 novel by the Jewish Canadian author Adele Wiseman, her second novel. The book tells the story of a baby born to impoverished immigrants, a mother who had a misshapen shoulder and who, still in the old country, was married off to a blind man who presumably wouldn't have to suffer from seeing her deformity. The mother, working all day as a cleaning woman, overfeeds the baby girl, Hoda, to pacify her, so that the child develops obesity almost from infancy. Before she can emerge from childhood, her mother dies, removing a potential source of guidance and advice from Hoda's life. But even before dying, the mother exhibits areas of gross misunderstanding of life in the New World. For example, when Hoda tells her she's been "playing doctor" with her friends, the mother encourages her, thinking the child is demonstrating an interest in medicine. Eventually, looking for love and pleasure, the child falls early into life as a sex worker, and that's how she earns a living for herself and her blind dad. She is a thinker, and fat, fleshy, technicolor, big-hearted, larger than life, and with a good sense of right and wrong, her livelihood notwithstanding. Also her belief in herself and love of life is nearly irrepressible, even as she gradually loses her illusions and magical thinking. In spite of her life outside the norms of polite society, she sees through those norms, and, in her company, so does the reader. She's innocent despite all, and not out of naïveté.
At first I was thinking of this book as a tragicomedy, but it isn't tragic in the ordinary sense. The element of tragedy if present is not due to a fall into moral turpitude but instead, it's that because of her place and time, she cannot use her larger than life persona to create in the world what she might otherwise have been capable of. After I finished I thought maybe the book is better described as a bildungsroman. But not only that; I still think tragicomedy applies as well.
I'm going to give the book a theme song: Leonard Cohen's "Anthem." The chorus in particular applies:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Another connection is to the kabbalistic midrash of the cracked vessels, Hoda being a cracked pot who cannot hold all there is. Neither can any of us.
I didn't look up the author before reading the book, but just tonight I found a good biographical sketch from the Jewish Women's Archive: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/... Both her novels were set in Winnipeg's North End, an intense and insular community of Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Slavs, according to the write-up. I also noticed that she married the same year she had her one child, when she would have turned 41, and that she divorced two years before her death.
Her first book won great acclaim, but this one, being very different, did not; it took a while before Crackpot's greatness was hailed.
Just as well the book isn't widely rediscovered in the U.S. at this time, or there would be a huge rush to ban it.
December 20, 2014
Extremely good. The author is able to flawlessly write from another's perspective with sympathy and realism. That or she lived the life of Hoda, which I think is very unlikely. This is a hidden gem of CanLit, and puts some of the modern hype-meisters to shame. The Sacrifice was fantastic, and in Crackpot it is proven that Wiseman is fantastically talented and honest. It's good literature and doesn't need any appellations beyond that.
April 5, 2008
This was such a disturbing book. The story itself was interesting but I couldn't get past the fact that the child in the book was basically a prostitute. I just found it really disturbing. I had to read it for a university ENG class and I just really did not enjoy it.
October 11, 2026
Absolute masterpiece. Adele Wiseman devrait être lue, elle devrait être reconnue et chérie comme un joyau national. Avec Hoda, elle a créé un des personnages de fiction les plus complets que j’ai fréquentés. Il y aurait tellement de belles choses à dire et à écrire sur les liens entre elle et, par exemple, Florentine Lacasse ou l’Albertine de Michel Tremblay. Et quelle maitrise du discours indirect libre, une technique que j’ai toujours personnellement préféré au monologue intérieur. Wiseman en fait un usage si fin, si texturé, que son roman finit par multiplier les couches de sens de manière exponentielle.
May 22, 2007
A classic I should have read ages ago. Vivid telling of early Winnipeg North End through the story of a Jewish family. Hoda is an overweight girl and then young woman... who can talk herself into any situation being for the good of humanity. Even when it is prostitution. Funny, sad, poignant, and incredibly well written. It is a little too long, but it is so well written you won't care.
January 28, 2010
I felt as though this started off slow, picked up a lot in the middle to where I couldn't put it down, and then ended rather abruptly. Although I loved the characters, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
November 21, 2017
Horrifying, poignant, hopeful, and hopeless. Could not put it down, but I didn't want to read it.
October 2, 2010
This is the disturbing and tragic story of Hoda, the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Hoda is a much-loved child and she grows up listening to family stories proudly told by her blind father Danile, who naively believes in his good luck in spite of poverty and misfortune. Danile and his slightly hunchbacked wife Rahel were married in a graveyard during a cholera epidemic in the old country. It appeared that the Jews were not quite as susceptible to the disease as gentiles and as the epidemic continued the threat of a pogrom frightened the Jewish community. An old belief held that the marriage of the community’s poorest, least able members in a cemetery would end the epidemic. Danile and Rahel were chosen. In return, the community would provide a dowry, a mud hut, and look after them. But as time went on people forgot the epidemic and their responsibility for the couple. Eventually they were sponsored to immigrate to Canada by an uncle in Winnipeg who was unaware of Danile’s blindness and saw them only as a financial burden once they arrived. They found a hovel in the north end of the city and Rahel went out to clean the houses of middleclass Jews. Because of Danile’s blindness she had to take Hoda along and constantly fed her to keep the child quiet. If life wasn’t already hard enough for this family, Rahel began to feel the growth of an abdominal tumour but did not take it seriously enough and postponed the surgery until it was too late. After her death, Danile’s prosperous uncle, harbouring dreams of becoming a community philanthropist, promised generous donations to the Jewish Orphanage and to the old folk’s home, thinking that he would be able to place his unwanted and dependent relatives there. He was stunned and furious by Danile and Hoda’s refusal to be separated and washed his hands of them. Danile had recently learned to weave baskets, and the two scraped by on the sale of these and with scraps that Hoda was given by the butcher in return for sexual favours. Hoda did not recognize until years later that her innocence had been abused. At school she was an outcast due to her obesity, her poverty, and lack of cleanliness. Soon she was to turn to the adolescent boys for acceptance, for love, and ultimately for money, becoming a prostitute. And yet she still optimistically believed that better days would come. When the cold weather came she brought the boys to her home telling Danile that she was tutoring them. He, either naively or willfully blind, seemed to accept this story and would retire to his room so as not to disturb them. Ignorant and with no one to talk to about women’s concerns, Hoda did not believe that she could become pregnant and thought she was becoming ill like her mother when she began to feel changes in her body. Wiseman’s writing vividly describes the terrifying experience of giving birth, at night, alone, and completely ignorant, Hoda screaming soundlessly to avoid disturbing and frightening her father. The realization of what had happened propelled her to action, cleaning up all traces, and walking in the middle of the night to the orphanage where she abandoned her son on the porch. The note she left with him would cause much speculation in the community as to his origins. Afterwards, Hoda carried on with her prostitution but learned to protect herself. She would also take cleaning jobs when they were available. She and Danile carried on as before, but Hoda now carried a sadness within her. Years later, Hoda met her adolescent son and this was truly tragic. Wiseman has created a character that one can’t help but feel deeply for, and yet feeling sorry for her one can’t help but admire the earthy Hoda’s resourcefulness, her optimism, her courage and her love. I’m surprised that this well-written novel with its strong characterisation and portrayal of Winnipeg's north end through the period of the World Wars and the Winnipeg General Strike isn’t better known. Wiseman was a contemporary and good friend of Margaret Laurence.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2025
“He stored the Divine Light in a Vessel, but the Vessel, unable to contain the Holy Radiance, burst, and its shards, permeated with sparks of the Divine, scattered through the Universe.” - Ari: Kabbalistic legend of creation
Adele Wiseman’s novel shines light on the struggles of Jewish immigrants in early 20th century Canada and people on the “fringes” of society. All this is told through Hoda, a sex worker who ultimately is the center of her small community. That is one of the many subversive things about her. Hoda is fiercely self deterministic; she approaches her work and life with duty and dignity. Even as she is broken by her hard life and the tragic, disturbing destiny with her son, her choice to be with him - and later, to let him go - follows her own conscience. Wiseman’s careful treatment of her inner life contributes to the great literary project of human understanding.
The novel is full of metaphor surrounding the “crackpot” theme. Hoda is seen as a crazy lady by the people in the town, but symbolically she is full of the “Divine Light”, and therefore retains some holy, childlike innocence. This is seen throughout the novel as her dreaming for a future with a loving partner. Hoda’s father as well, and more explicitly, is full of innocence to the details of Hoda’s work and life. I wonder if Wiseman’s choice to write him as a basket weaver is an intentional one, to draw a parallel with the symbolism of the cracked pot. You can imagine how the light would shine out of both objects. But while the basket holds together (the father was, after all, the best weaver in town), the cracked pot shatters…
My one qualm with Crackpot was the ending. It felt rushed and convenient to introduce a character at the end to resolve Hoda’s character arc. Literary faux pas in my opinion. But a small gripe in any case. What an excellent story!
Adele Wiseman’s novel shines light on the struggles of Jewish immigrants in early 20th century Canada and people on the “fringes” of society. All this is told through Hoda, a sex worker who ultimately is the center of her small community. That is one of the many subversive things about her. Hoda is fiercely self deterministic; she approaches her work and life with duty and dignity. Even as she is broken by her hard life and the tragic, disturbing destiny with her son, her choice to be with him - and later, to let him go - follows her own conscience. Wiseman’s careful treatment of her inner life contributes to the great literary project of human understanding.
The novel is full of metaphor surrounding the “crackpot” theme. Hoda is seen as a crazy lady by the people in the town, but symbolically she is full of the “Divine Light”, and therefore retains some holy, childlike innocence. This is seen throughout the novel as her dreaming for a future with a loving partner. Hoda’s father as well, and more explicitly, is full of innocence to the details of Hoda’s work and life. I wonder if Wiseman’s choice to write him as a basket weaver is an intentional one, to draw a parallel with the symbolism of the cracked pot. You can imagine how the light would shine out of both objects. But while the basket holds together (the father was, after all, the best weaver in town), the cracked pot shatters…
My one qualm with Crackpot was the ending. It felt rushed and convenient to introduce a character at the end to resolve Hoda’s character arc. Literary faux pas in my opinion. But a small gripe in any case. What an excellent story!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2018
Wow. This is a challenging book, both in terms of subject matter and writing style. However, it is really rewarding. Honda is one of the most interesting characters in CanLit. She is vulgar, yet sensitive; coarse, yet charming, world wise, yet incredibly naive. As a child she is neglected and abused - neglected by her parents because they try, but don't know any better; by her teachers because they simply don't care. And she is used by her schoolmates and neighbours for sexual favours. All leads to an end that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Through it all, Hoda remains positive, overcomes her self-esteem issues and becomes an incredibly strong, resourceful woman. This is not a book to take lightly. The writing style can be dense and difficult to penetrate. This is not a fault, it forces the reader to pay attention and think. Numerous times I had to retread pages to ensure I knew what was being said. It is a very good book that deserves a wider readership.
September 25, 2020
This book is the reason that I read books. Hoda - honest, loud, loving, free-spirited Hoda - has joined Sara Goldfarb (Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.) and Pecola Breedlove (The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison) as a fictional character* that will live with me forever. (*None of these characters feel fictional - they all live, love, hurt and continue to breathe long after you've turned the final page).
Yes, there are scenes in Crackpot that are disturbing; read it anyway. This is a book that will open your mind and your heart.
Yes, there are scenes in Crackpot that are disturbing; read it anyway. This is a book that will open your mind and your heart.
June 12, 2013
This is by far one of the best books I have read from Adel Wiseman. I first read this book in a Ontario Literature Course in University. I have since made time to re-read it every now and again as the story is one that touches your heart. Sometimes the insite we get from the way others live gives you such a different perspective on your own life.
September 7, 2015
Great book, but not an easy book. It was disturbing, heartwrenching, sometimes humorous and totally captivating. I felt like I was witnessing a train wreck. A remarkable story of Hoda's survival growing up a in crushing poverty. Hardships piled on disppointments heaped on tradgedies. At times hard to read and hard to put down.
Read
July 13, 2007I'll hopefully return to this later. I've been distracted by other books recently.
August 3, 2010
Review to come.
December 2, 2012
Triumphant! Difficult yet uplifting.
February 2, 2016
Uf! Humor *muy* negro, situaciones inconcebibles, discriminación, comunismo, activismo. Una verdadera feminista. La autora sin tabúes, la protagonista sin malicia. Vale mucho la pena
July 3, 2016
Beautiful and brutal.
September 1, 2020
Brilliant
December 29, 2018
"It was by this time her fate to have been part, even if only fragmentarily, of the past of such a great segment of the community that she was something of a vested memory, as much to those who would not admit to having had any personal contact as to those who boasted innumerable encounters, and every story, new or old, in which she distinguished herself by being somehow still unrepentantly out of pitch with the rest of humanity was as welcome as the fragile daily illusion that nothing is really changing." (441)
August 11, 2018
I just can't get into the way the the story goes off in tangents and the circuitous nature of the sentence structure. I've spent too many days trying to get through 56 pages, so DNF.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews