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From Heaven With a Shout
180 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1963
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October 16, 2023
I got some kind of a photocopied version of this book, from my late dad's things. I believe he'd taught this story to one of his classes years ago. I remember him saying it was "a good one." I nearly recycled this photocopied book because it smelled of must from my own ill-storing of a lot of dad's things once he'd gone into care. Instead I braved the must and I read the whole thing. And the must has dissipated...perhaps must must not necessarily stay around? I agree with dad, "From Heaven With a Shout" is a 'good one.'
One can't help but be incredibly sad and mad and feel robbed by the fact that Patricia Blondal died so young, in her early thirties from cancer. So much great writing we could have had, had she lived even another decade or two, or three.
From Heaven With A Shout starts off strong and has a lot of very evocative and sophisticated writing, effective and clear and original. It gets the point across and kind of slays you. I mean, here is a woman who is about to sell herself to a man, and leave her country and her child and fly to a whole new life. You know she had to be a special kind of sad, to do that. But we don't dwell too much on her past, the story is about her journey into the new. The strange arranged marriage---arranged by the buyer and the seller, the seller being our narrator Arden.
As we get into the nitty gritty of the new life, new wife, new world, things become more of a racy chick-lit type of a story, with jealousy and sex and mystery thrown in. But I preferred the first section, in London, when Arden's loneliness and despair practically drip off the page.
From Heaven With a Shout was written in 1962 and kind of straddles the old and new worlds. Sometimes you feel it could be set in an earlier time, as it's set among a wealthy family and concerns relationships rather than anything to really place it in the modern era. Except automobiles. FHWAS also has that uniquely West Coast of Canada women's writing quality, to set beside the works of Ethel Wilson and perhaps Margaret Laurence's "The Fire Dwellers." The location is almost a character, the trees and the ocean, the rain and the fog.
One thing about these stories, whether Netflix fare or a novel written in '62, these stories concerning wealthy dynasties and their emotional problems kind of make me roll my eyes and think, well are the problems of the very rich any more interesting than the problems of the poor or the middle class? And when male lead Alex speaks of why he won't go back to practicing medicine, giving the reason that it's not as important as working on higher issues, I think "Well that's elitist of him: is not helping individuals in this most basic way, some of the most important work a person can do?" However the very main character, Arden, comes from a working class background so we can sympathize with her to a point, even if she does sell herself for a great deal of money and a whole new lifestyle and location. She often scolds the wealthy Lamonds, one of whom she's become, for not doing anything. As do some of the Lamonds scold the ones that are not doing enough, that are sitting around enjoying a life of leisure and sport. So the elephant in the room IS always addressed, but it's often hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for characters thus spoiled. Still again, this was another era and kudos for Patricia Blondal for working in a few feminist ideas even while occasionally contradicting them.
One can't help but be incredibly sad and mad and feel robbed by the fact that Patricia Blondal died so young, in her early thirties from cancer. So much great writing we could have had, had she lived even another decade or two, or three.
From Heaven With A Shout starts off strong and has a lot of very evocative and sophisticated writing, effective and clear and original. It gets the point across and kind of slays you. I mean, here is a woman who is about to sell herself to a man, and leave her country and her child and fly to a whole new life. You know she had to be a special kind of sad, to do that. But we don't dwell too much on her past, the story is about her journey into the new. The strange arranged marriage---arranged by the buyer and the seller, the seller being our narrator Arden.
As we get into the nitty gritty of the new life, new wife, new world, things become more of a racy chick-lit type of a story, with jealousy and sex and mystery thrown in. But I preferred the first section, in London, when Arden's loneliness and despair practically drip off the page.
From Heaven With a Shout was written in 1962 and kind of straddles the old and new worlds. Sometimes you feel it could be set in an earlier time, as it's set among a wealthy family and concerns relationships rather than anything to really place it in the modern era. Except automobiles. FHWAS also has that uniquely West Coast of Canada women's writing quality, to set beside the works of Ethel Wilson and perhaps Margaret Laurence's "The Fire Dwellers." The location is almost a character, the trees and the ocean, the rain and the fog.
One thing about these stories, whether Netflix fare or a novel written in '62, these stories concerning wealthy dynasties and their emotional problems kind of make me roll my eyes and think, well are the problems of the very rich any more interesting than the problems of the poor or the middle class? And when male lead Alex speaks of why he won't go back to practicing medicine, giving the reason that it's not as important as working on higher issues, I think "Well that's elitist of him: is not helping individuals in this most basic way, some of the most important work a person can do?" However the very main character, Arden, comes from a working class background so we can sympathize with her to a point, even if she does sell herself for a great deal of money and a whole new lifestyle and location. She often scolds the wealthy Lamonds, one of whom she's become, for not doing anything. As do some of the Lamonds scold the ones that are not doing enough, that are sitting around enjoying a life of leisure and sport. So the elephant in the room IS always addressed, but it's often hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for characters thus spoiled. Still again, this was another era and kudos for Patricia Blondal for working in a few feminist ideas even while occasionally contradicting them.
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