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Once More with Feeling
From award-winning author Méira Cook comes a novel exploring the intricacies and interconnected lives of one community in a small and colourful prairie city. After twenty years Max Binder is still in love with his fiery wife, Maggie, and is determined to get her the perfect fortieth birthday gift. But Max’s singular desire — to make his wife happy — leads to an unexpected event that changes the course of his family’s life and touches the people who make up their western prairie city. Set over the course of a single year, Once More With Feeling tells the story of this city through intersecting moments and interconnected lives. The colourful citizens who make up the community are marked by transformation, upheaval, and the worker at a downtown soup kitchen who recognizes a kindred spirit amongst the homeless; the aging sisters who everywhere see the fleeting ghosts of two missing neighbourhood children; a communal voice of mothers anxious for the future of their children in the discomfiting world they inhabit. Award-winning author Méira Cook has crafted a novel that is at once funny, poignant, and yes, full of feeling.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 23, 2017
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222 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 6, 2019
When I comment on other people’s book blogs, I frequently find myself saying similar things; in particular, I frequently admit that I love a good book that deals with nothing at all (like the literary version of Seinfeld). People’s mundane lives, the things that happen to all of us fascinate me, so I really expected to like Meira Cook’s novel Once More With Feeling. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t hit the mark for me.
This book reads like a collection of short stories, as each lengthy chapter is written from a different character’s perspective. We begin with Max, who has flown over his family’s 17-year-old World Vision ‘adopted’ child Pat from Africa to meet his wife as a surprise birthday gift. Moral issues with treating a person as a gift aside, this is a pretty unrealistic thing to start the book off with, but I’ll let that go. Unfortunately, Max and Pat get into a car accident and perish before they reach home and even more unfortunately, Max’s fly on his pants was broken. When their bodies are discovered in this comprising position, people assume the worst, and Max’s reputation is tarnished forever, especially in his family’s eyes. From then on we hear the perspective of each remaining family member, as well as other, unconnected members of their small community, many stories in which Max’s family barely registers.
Even summarizing this book intrigues me, because I think it’s a wonderfully sad premise. However, Cook just wasn’t able to follow through on connecting these stories to each other, and to the reader. What this book suffers from, at its heart, is unevenness. Some chapters I really enjoyed and connected to, while others lay flat, or at worst, come across as totally unnecessary. I think Cook was too ambitious with attempting to write narratives from so many different voices; teenage girls, older men, a young man suffering from various forms of mental illness. The scope is just too large and unfocused in this one.
Reading other reviews of this book only confirms my belief about is; it’s in need of a more substantive edit, and even though other reviewers were more positive than I’m being here, they all admit this is difficult to get through. I rarely DNF (do not finish) a book however, and I’m glad I kept going until the end on this one because I was rewarded with some closure in the last two chapters, and I closed the book feeling a bit lighter despite the tragedy(ies) I described above. In addition to the hopeful ending, I was also pleased with a few specific characters, some were extremely funny, especially the teenagers, and especially when said teenagers were describing seniors:
“Mrs. Silverstein was asking a bunch of girls if they were vegetarians, she certainly hoped not but it seemed to be the fashion these days. For instance, her own daughter, her Leah, had become one recently, and she was still a vegetarian even after Mrs Silverstein pointed out that if God didn’t want people to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them out of food”(p. 153)
Does this not sound like every old person you’ve ever talked to? Cook has clearly nailed this character, and she wrote every person in a very authentic way, in fact it’s impressive how realistic she was able to write each diverse viewpoint…but still, why bombard the reader with all this?
I will never write a book, I have no intention of doing so, so I read and critique writing with the reader’s experience first and foremost in my mind. Perhaps this makes me a harsher critic? I expect the author to write the book for us, the people on the receiving end.
Read the rest of my reviews on my blog at:
https://ivereadthis.com/
and follow me on twitter at:
@ivereadthisblog
This book reads like a collection of short stories, as each lengthy chapter is written from a different character’s perspective. We begin with Max, who has flown over his family’s 17-year-old World Vision ‘adopted’ child Pat from Africa to meet his wife as a surprise birthday gift. Moral issues with treating a person as a gift aside, this is a pretty unrealistic thing to start the book off with, but I’ll let that go. Unfortunately, Max and Pat get into a car accident and perish before they reach home and even more unfortunately, Max’s fly on his pants was broken. When their bodies are discovered in this comprising position, people assume the worst, and Max’s reputation is tarnished forever, especially in his family’s eyes. From then on we hear the perspective of each remaining family member, as well as other, unconnected members of their small community, many stories in which Max’s family barely registers.
Even summarizing this book intrigues me, because I think it’s a wonderfully sad premise. However, Cook just wasn’t able to follow through on connecting these stories to each other, and to the reader. What this book suffers from, at its heart, is unevenness. Some chapters I really enjoyed and connected to, while others lay flat, or at worst, come across as totally unnecessary. I think Cook was too ambitious with attempting to write narratives from so many different voices; teenage girls, older men, a young man suffering from various forms of mental illness. The scope is just too large and unfocused in this one.
Reading other reviews of this book only confirms my belief about is; it’s in need of a more substantive edit, and even though other reviewers were more positive than I’m being here, they all admit this is difficult to get through. I rarely DNF (do not finish) a book however, and I’m glad I kept going until the end on this one because I was rewarded with some closure in the last two chapters, and I closed the book feeling a bit lighter despite the tragedy(ies) I described above. In addition to the hopeful ending, I was also pleased with a few specific characters, some were extremely funny, especially the teenagers, and especially when said teenagers were describing seniors:
“Mrs. Silverstein was asking a bunch of girls if they were vegetarians, she certainly hoped not but it seemed to be the fashion these days. For instance, her own daughter, her Leah, had become one recently, and she was still a vegetarian even after Mrs Silverstein pointed out that if God didn’t want people to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them out of food”(p. 153)
Does this not sound like every old person you’ve ever talked to? Cook has clearly nailed this character, and she wrote every person in a very authentic way, in fact it’s impressive how realistic she was able to write each diverse viewpoint…but still, why bombard the reader with all this?
I will never write a book, I have no intention of doing so, so I read and critique writing with the reader’s experience first and foremost in my mind. Perhaps this makes me a harsher critic? I expect the author to write the book for us, the people on the receiving end.
Read the rest of my reviews on my blog at:
https://ivereadthis.com/
and follow me on twitter at:
@ivereadthisblog
December 15, 2017
Once in a blue moon, I find a book (or the book finds me) that is so good, whose writing is so excellent, that evokes actual laughter and actual tears, that breaks and delights my heart, a book that is so perfect it seems, honestly, impossible to me.
Yet here it is in my hands: conceived, written, published, read, and real--for which we are all truly lucky.
Meira Cook writes about life and death and humanity as if she's been ssomehow granted a VIP pass to it all, the exclusive in-depth understanding of it all, from all perspectives, stuff many of us can't even imagine--yet which nevertheless rings true. There's so much here, on how we live, how we spend our days, how we respond to life and people and events; how we perceive things and interpret them; how we love and hurt and laugh. and through it all, Desire, with a capital D.
That Meira manages to do it all with such fantastic humour throughout is especially wonderful.
I have no doubt: This is my favourite book of the year.
Yet here it is in my hands: conceived, written, published, read, and real--for which we are all truly lucky.
Meira Cook writes about life and death and humanity as if she's been ssomehow granted a VIP pass to it all, the exclusive in-depth understanding of it all, from all perspectives, stuff many of us can't even imagine--yet which nevertheless rings true. There's so much here, on how we live, how we spend our days, how we respond to life and people and events; how we perceive things and interpret them; how we love and hurt and laugh. and through it all, Desire, with a capital D.
That Meira manages to do it all with such fantastic humour throughout is especially wonderful.
I have no doubt: This is my favourite book of the year.
October 10, 2017
I am enjoying it (not quite finished ) I think in large part to the fact that it is set in Winnipeg. There is a large cast of characters and it is a bit difficult to keep a handle on all of them.
February 2, 2018
Quit on P.68. Didn't like the style, the story, or the characters
March 24, 2021
The book begins with eccentrism, then veers headfirst into tragedy, but, ultimately, is about absolutely nothing.
That's really it. The book is about the convoluted, complicated lives of all these people who are somehow connected, but rather than being fascinating, it's obnoxious, arrogant exposition. Each character just prattles on and on. There is absolutely no point! (Just. Trust me. There's a whole three-to-four page rant about socks. Could have gone without that.)
Reading this book just felt like trudging through sludge, and coming out the other side with nothing but wet, slimy feet. I can understand how this kind of book is appealing to most, but it really did not appeal to me.
That's really it. The book is about the convoluted, complicated lives of all these people who are somehow connected, but rather than being fascinating, it's obnoxious, arrogant exposition. Each character just prattles on and on. There is absolutely no point! (Just. Trust me. There's a whole three-to-four page rant about socks. Could have gone without that.)
Reading this book just felt like trudging through sludge, and coming out the other side with nothing but wet, slimy feet. I can understand how this kind of book is appealing to most, but it really did not appeal to me.
August 3, 2017
I liked this book and I think the author wanted the reader to wonder what happened to Pat as mostly throughout the whole book I was wondering why no one had inquired about Pat. That took a lot of chapters to finally get back to Pat which I thought was paramount as it related to what Max's wife was going through believing what was presented to her. The story wanders a bit throughout all the lives of people related by friendship and relatives but still I am thinking why hasn't anyone asked about Pat. Very interesting read as what you are presented with might not be how it is.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
September 29, 2017
I received this book free through Goodreads. Sections of this book were about different characters as if they were narrated by those characters, but I didn't understand why certain characters were even written about. They seemed random even though at certain points all the characters had interacted at one point. Those parts just didn't seem to match up with what I considered to be the main story of Max and his family and Pat. I enjoyed the parts with the 'main characters but not the chapters about the others.
February 9, 2019
I don't think I was in the right frame of mind while reading this book. I feel like I should have enjoyed it more, because it had lots of my favourite "ingredients" in a story: familiar setting (Winnipeg), ethnic lens (Judaic), perceptive and endearing characters of all ages, lyrical language, etc. I LOVED the description of Maggie's prowess at fluent swearing in 12 different languages, four of them dead. Although I quickly lost interest in the story, I read the book to the end, seeking a resolution to the cliffhanger events at the end of the first chapter.
September 9, 2017
i was the lucky winner of a copy of this novel through a goodreads win. it is a very nice story about a slice of small town life and kind of meanders along touching on many characters along the way. it is very well written and makes you feel you know each character. they all come together and interact with each other and you can definitely put yourself into the picture. a nice read. syndi
September 25, 2017
I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I can't recommend this book. I found it very hard to get through. So many characters, every chapter was from someone else's point of view, it was very confusing and hard to follow. The only reason I finished reading was to find out what happened to the girl from the first part of the book.
July 12, 2021
Set in and around Winnipeg, Once More With Feeling is a series of stories that follow a circle of characters in and around the city over the course of a year. There’s a nice sense of humour at work, and a lot of heart. It’s one for the Canadiana bookshelf; read it in tandem with Little Fish and you’ve got a full fledged look at Canada’s windiest city.
February 20, 2018
A beautiful book, beautifully written and absolutely hilarious! I laughed out loud frequently. Cook has a wonderful way with voice, and is able to render the teenage voice both funny and poignant. Every new character was a delight.
November 8, 2017
So thick and rich. It’s so chewy, filled with gorgeous scenery and characters.
March 25, 2018
Couldn't get through the first half. I found the story weak and didn't enjoy the writing style.
July 12, 2018
read 19 pgs. not my kind of book.
Read
August 26, 2024Did not complete
August 9, 2025
This was really a series of short stories with some tenuous connections between them. I had difficulty getting in to this book and never really found the groove of it.
May 8, 2020
There are many things I love about Winnipeg as my home city...but somehow this book failed to capture any of them. Maybe it was just because it was too close to the Winnipeg I know and *don’t* love.
No slight on the narrative(s), which I found interesting if unfulfilling. I would be curious to know how this reads to a non-Winnipegger.
No slight on the narrative(s), which I found interesting if unfulfilling. I would be curious to know how this reads to a non-Winnipegger.
November 19, 2018
If you’ve ever wondered why I read, look no further than Once More with Feeling. It’s for the chance to come across a story unlike any other I’ve read before. To meet an author who can strip away the bells and whistles and write with complete authenticity. Write about life as it is from its heartbreaking ugliness to its unexpected kindnesses. Give me insights I didn’t even know I was searching for. This is the treasure that is Once More with Feeling.
Set over the course of a year, Méira Cook invites readers into the lives of an entire community in a western prairie city. Whose citizens include Max Binder, a devoted husband, Miss Leonard, a soup kitchen worker, and Dee, a teenage girl, among many others. Each one doing their best to live life while faced with a struggle that seems insurmountable.
To read my full review, please visit: www.inderjitdeogun.com/blog/oncemore
Set over the course of a year, Méira Cook invites readers into the lives of an entire community in a western prairie city. Whose citizens include Max Binder, a devoted husband, Miss Leonard, a soup kitchen worker, and Dee, a teenage girl, among many others. Each one doing their best to live life while faced with a struggle that seems insurmountable.
To read my full review, please visit: www.inderjitdeogun.com/blog/oncemore
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews