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Quint
In the vein of Zadie Smith’s NW and Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archives, Dionne Irving’s novel QUINT is based on a real-life family of quintuplets who rise to celebrity and fame in Canada in the 1940s.Dionne Irving has published fiction and nonfiction in The Missouri Review, Boulevard Magazine, The Crab Orchard Review, and other places. Her essay “Living with Racial Fatigue” was chosen as a 2017 Notable Essay in the Best American Essays collection.BLURBS“Dionne Irving’s fascinating novel begins as an exploration of the ways in which innocents can be exploited, perverted, and victimized by rampant commercial exploitation. From there the story broadens and deepens to become a poignant and ambitious meditation on the human condition itself, particularly as it relates to our relationship with love or its absence. Quint is a compelling read and Dionne Irving is a writer on the rise.”--Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True“Quint is an expansive novel of multiple births, motherhood, siblings, celebrity, exploitation, loss and connection; this story truly contains the world. Dionne Irving is a fantastic writer; she tells this unique story with honesty and precision and playfulness, and this novel compels with her vision, which is original and vast.”--Karen E. Bender, author of Refund
263 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 3, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 12, 2023
Actually, this book rating should be a bit lower if we are considering editing. Misspellings. Misuse of English grammar. I felt as if a person for whom standard English is not their first language had final editing decisions for this. It was distracting to me, but nevertheless, I could appreciate the writing style, especially the organization and flow. I had to remind myself this is a work of fiction upon finishing the book! I may well read at least one of the biographies that has been published about them. A compellingly readable historical fiction often motivates me to read some nonfiction about the same people/event and this one does exactly that!
page 73
I realize this was the depression and 1939-1940, but this is rather unbelievable! I cannot imagine...
page 73
I realize this was the depression and 1939-1940, but this is rather unbelievable! I cannot imagine...
January 3, 2022
Wally Lamb loved this book, and I did too. Wonderfully written and incredibly compelling. A literary page-turner.
March 28, 2022
Dionne Irving is a notable writer of the 21st century, publishing fiction and nonfiction in The Missouri Review, Boulevard Magazine, and The Crab Orchard Review, among other places. Her essay “Living with Racial Fatigue” was chosen as a 2017 Notable Essay in the Best American Essays collection.
Her novel, Quint (2021), is a historical fiction novel largely based on the real-life quintuplets that lived in Canada in the 1940s. This reliance on real-life people shifts this novel from fiction to “nonfictional fiction,” meaning that the novel is largely true but slightly altered. This nonfictional approach to the novel helps to highlight several issues in today’s society that could have been influenced or avoided by closely examining the events that the novel is based on and does so in a detached manner that leaves little room for judgment. The novel directly asks the reader which sections of history could be drastically changed by asking the “unraised questions?” (80)
Irving opens the books with the state of affairs between the parents of the quintuplets. Swiftly, we move on to the effects of unchecked capitalism, such as stealing five children from their parents and all but forcing them to sign their rights to them away. A connection between capitalism and colonialism is explored in the second “part,” the shortest in the novel at 14 pages long. This section seems to suggest that all English people are colonizers and capitalists by asking “Wasn’t it the duty of any good citizen of the empire, to make a name or life for yourself in the furthest reaches of its borders?” (103)
The third part centers mostly on the children’s early life, particularly how the children are taught to behave. The adults are unable to punish the children for disobedience and this reflects some aspects of parenting today. Because the public is quick to use the term abuse, punishment is less effective and often shameful.
The ending of the book focuses on who gets to dole out the blame and who is to receive it. While Canada as a whole is to blame for its capitalistic usage of children, the sixth sister who died soon after birth doles out blame for all. There is also a reference to what Americans would have done as opposed to Canadians, which feels like the excuse of things Canada did that aren’t as icky as what America did/does.
While I personally do not find the book favorable because much of the information can be found in another source that is dedicated to the topic and because I found little entertainment aside from snipes at nations, which are admittedly, quite sharp, I do find it favorable as a novel by itself. The novel gives voices to characters that might otherwise be painted over with the image of the villain and it is quite sharp in its criticism of how the situation was handled. I do think that this novel is better recommended as nonfiction to readers, as it hardly seems fictional besides the fact that a ghost tells us most of the story. I entered the story expecting a purely fictional story, a what-if that could have explored different circumstances. If it had “based on a true story” on it, then perhaps I would have entered without preconceived notions of fictional accounts.
Amazon recommends How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith, Maus, and The Keeper of Happy Ending by Barbara Davis. The book is also compared to Zadie Smith’s NW and Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archives, which are “in the [same] vein.”
Quint was published on August 3, 2021, by 7.13 Books. It is a total of 263 pages. The Amazon paperback edition has 13 ratings, all of which are 5 star reviews.
Her novel, Quint (2021), is a historical fiction novel largely based on the real-life quintuplets that lived in Canada in the 1940s. This reliance on real-life people shifts this novel from fiction to “nonfictional fiction,” meaning that the novel is largely true but slightly altered. This nonfictional approach to the novel helps to highlight several issues in today’s society that could have been influenced or avoided by closely examining the events that the novel is based on and does so in a detached manner that leaves little room for judgment. The novel directly asks the reader which sections of history could be drastically changed by asking the “unraised questions?” (80)
Irving opens the books with the state of affairs between the parents of the quintuplets. Swiftly, we move on to the effects of unchecked capitalism, such as stealing five children from their parents and all but forcing them to sign their rights to them away. A connection between capitalism and colonialism is explored in the second “part,” the shortest in the novel at 14 pages long. This section seems to suggest that all English people are colonizers and capitalists by asking “Wasn’t it the duty of any good citizen of the empire, to make a name or life for yourself in the furthest reaches of its borders?” (103)
The third part centers mostly on the children’s early life, particularly how the children are taught to behave. The adults are unable to punish the children for disobedience and this reflects some aspects of parenting today. Because the public is quick to use the term abuse, punishment is less effective and often shameful.
The ending of the book focuses on who gets to dole out the blame and who is to receive it. While Canada as a whole is to blame for its capitalistic usage of children, the sixth sister who died soon after birth doles out blame for all. There is also a reference to what Americans would have done as opposed to Canadians, which feels like the excuse of things Canada did that aren’t as icky as what America did/does.
While I personally do not find the book favorable because much of the information can be found in another source that is dedicated to the topic and because I found little entertainment aside from snipes at nations, which are admittedly, quite sharp, I do find it favorable as a novel by itself. The novel gives voices to characters that might otherwise be painted over with the image of the villain and it is quite sharp in its criticism of how the situation was handled. I do think that this novel is better recommended as nonfiction to readers, as it hardly seems fictional besides the fact that a ghost tells us most of the story. I entered the story expecting a purely fictional story, a what-if that could have explored different circumstances. If it had “based on a true story” on it, then perhaps I would have entered without preconceived notions of fictional accounts.
Amazon recommends How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith, Maus, and The Keeper of Happy Ending by Barbara Davis. The book is also compared to Zadie Smith’s NW and Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archives, which are “in the [same] vein.”
Quint was published on August 3, 2021, by 7.13 Books. It is a total of 263 pages. The Amazon paperback edition has 13 ratings, all of which are 5 star reviews.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2022
Quint is a historical fiction novel based off the real-life Dionne quintuplets, retelling the story of the Phalene quintuplets. It is the debut novel of Dionne Irving, who is from Ontario and has published work in multiple journals and magazines. Quint was published in 2021 by 7.13 Books and is 308 pages long. It is divided into five parts, each covering a different period of time in the lives of the Phalenes, as well as telling other parts of the story (for example, one part tells the life story of Anthony Rhys Osborne, who took control of the quintuplets’ lives shortly after they were born). It is told from the perspectives of the quintuplets, their dead sixth sister, their parents, and many others, including Rhys Osborne and the town they were born in.
The Phalene quintuplets are based on the real-life Dionne quintuplets. However, the two sets of quintuplets lead very different lives upon reaching adulthood. There are many ways in which the stories of the Phalenes differ from the Dionnes, though their immense stardom and use in advertisements is not one of those. A major theme, in fact probably the biggest theme of the novel, is the exploitation of children and the morality of child stars. The Phalene quintuplets are undeniably exploited by pretty much everyone they meet, and their existence is used to make those around them extremely rich, which parallels many modern-day child influencers and child stars. Their existence, living life on display to the public and forced to work from infancy, quickly becomes miserable, shown in lines like “Everyone seemed to see all of them at once, as though they were in fact one person, not five.”
The multiple perspectives really help to get into the characters’ heads and understand the full story, and the use of the dead sister is another creative way to tell the story in a more complete sense. There is so much fantastic phrasing, such as “As the babies kept coming, she felt herself wasting away, unable to find that part of her that once had been Catherine” or an early line spoken by the dead sister, “I close my eyes before the story even begins.” There are some issues where I believe a more thorough editor would have been helpful: many homophones are swapped, such as the use of “wretch” instead of “retch”, which can be distracting from the story.
Overall, I would say that Quint is a very good book, difficult to put down, and generally well-written, though with minor grammar-related issues detailed above. For a debut novel in particular, it is a great start, and definitely a book I will be rereading in the future.
Similar books include numerous novels and nonfiction books based on the Dionne quintuplets:
- The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood
- The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller
- Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplet’s Autobiography by Jean-Ives Soucy, Annette Dionne, Cecile Dionne, and Yvonne Dionne
- We Were Five: The Dionne Quintuplets’ Story from Birth through Girlhood to Womanhood by James Brough, Annette Dionne, Yvonne Dionne, Marie Dionne, and Cecile Dionne
- The Dionnes by Ellie Tesher
The Phalene quintuplets are based on the real-life Dionne quintuplets. However, the two sets of quintuplets lead very different lives upon reaching adulthood. There are many ways in which the stories of the Phalenes differ from the Dionnes, though their immense stardom and use in advertisements is not one of those. A major theme, in fact probably the biggest theme of the novel, is the exploitation of children and the morality of child stars. The Phalene quintuplets are undeniably exploited by pretty much everyone they meet, and their existence is used to make those around them extremely rich, which parallels many modern-day child influencers and child stars. Their existence, living life on display to the public and forced to work from infancy, quickly becomes miserable, shown in lines like “Everyone seemed to see all of them at once, as though they were in fact one person, not five.”
The multiple perspectives really help to get into the characters’ heads and understand the full story, and the use of the dead sister is another creative way to tell the story in a more complete sense. There is so much fantastic phrasing, such as “As the babies kept coming, she felt herself wasting away, unable to find that part of her that once had been Catherine” or an early line spoken by the dead sister, “I close my eyes before the story even begins.” There are some issues where I believe a more thorough editor would have been helpful: many homophones are swapped, such as the use of “wretch” instead of “retch”, which can be distracting from the story.
Overall, I would say that Quint is a very good book, difficult to put down, and generally well-written, though with minor grammar-related issues detailed above. For a debut novel in particular, it is a great start, and definitely a book I will be rereading in the future.
Similar books include numerous novels and nonfiction books based on the Dionne quintuplets:
- The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood
- The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller
- Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplet’s Autobiography by Jean-Ives Soucy, Annette Dionne, Cecile Dionne, and Yvonne Dionne
- We Were Five: The Dionne Quintuplets’ Story from Birth through Girlhood to Womanhood by James Brough, Annette Dionne, Yvonne Dionne, Marie Dionne, and Cecile Dionne
- The Dionnes by Ellie Tesher
December 1, 2021
What an incredibly strange little book this was. I picked it up because, according to those who know best, I can never resist books about "tragic families with too many girls" (I was taking out a book about the Romanovs at the same time, so that made a lot of sense, actually.) I don't even remember how the story of the Dionne quintuplets got on my radar in the first place, as I am not Canadian (although an American coworker who was in her eighties told me she remembered having Dionne dolls as a child!), but it has deeply intrigued me since. It's interesting to me how children too young to consent to such things being exploited for fame is a tale as old as time (particularly if they're born a set of multiples—hello, entire TLC lineup).
To be clear, this is not a story about the Dionnes...and it is. The names have all been changed, and the time period shifted slightly from the 1930s to the 1940s. There's an unnamed sixth sibling (making these fictional Dionnes properly sextuplets, I guess?) who dies shortly after birth and serves as an omniscient narrator for much of the book. And yet, other things are lifted right out of history, including names of specific pieces of media (books about the quintuplets, films that the real quintuplets actually appeared in), and, most especially, the horrific exploitation and turning of children into a sideshow for personal gain. And while I really liked Irving's writing style (side note: searching this book on Goodreads, when the author's first name is identical to the real quintuplets' last name, was NOT EASY), I had a hard time parsing out how I felt about it at the end. Maybe because I've read so much about the real quintuplets, I had a hard time reconciling fact with fiction, especially because the two collided in so many unexpected ways in the novel. To be clear, however: I'm very glad that the quintuplets' story was fictionalized in this book. Another work of historical fiction on this subject, The Quintland Sisters, did not do such a service, and took historical liberties with characters that were ethically dubious, given that these were real people whose children and grandchildren are still alive today.
Somewhat minor quibble: the editing of this book was atrocious! Several very obvious punctuation mistakes, one instance of the same sentence repeated twice, and there wasn't even any spelling consistency in one of the quintuplet's names. (She was alternately "Madeline" and "Madeleine.") The only reason I bring this up is that there really truly were a lot of errors, and I was disappointed on behalf of the author, who clearly worked hard and researched a lot on this novel, and deserves better than one of my main takeaways being that the editing was bad.
To be clear, this is not a story about the Dionnes...and it is. The names have all been changed, and the time period shifted slightly from the 1930s to the 1940s. There's an unnamed sixth sibling (making these fictional Dionnes properly sextuplets, I guess?) who dies shortly after birth and serves as an omniscient narrator for much of the book. And yet, other things are lifted right out of history, including names of specific pieces of media (books about the quintuplets, films that the real quintuplets actually appeared in), and, most especially, the horrific exploitation and turning of children into a sideshow for personal gain. And while I really liked Irving's writing style (side note: searching this book on Goodreads, when the author's first name is identical to the real quintuplets' last name, was NOT EASY), I had a hard time parsing out how I felt about it at the end. Maybe because I've read so much about the real quintuplets, I had a hard time reconciling fact with fiction, especially because the two collided in so many unexpected ways in the novel. To be clear, however: I'm very glad that the quintuplets' story was fictionalized in this book. Another work of historical fiction on this subject, The Quintland Sisters, did not do such a service, and took historical liberties with characters that were ethically dubious, given that these were real people whose children and grandchildren are still alive today.
Somewhat minor quibble: the editing of this book was atrocious! Several very obvious punctuation mistakes, one instance of the same sentence repeated twice, and there wasn't even any spelling consistency in one of the quintuplet's names. (She was alternately "Madeline" and "Madeleine.") The only reason I bring this up is that there really truly were a lot of errors, and I was disappointed on behalf of the author, who clearly worked hard and researched a lot on this novel, and deserves better than one of my main takeaways being that the editing was bad.
January 4, 2022
4.5 stars.
A truly fascinating insight into the exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets. This book gave me chills throughout, and I could NOT put it down. Narrated from the POV of the sixth sister, who unfortunately did not survive birth, this depiction of events is fictional. Whilst this choice of narration is odd and perhaps not most reliable, on the whole I liked the author's choice of narration as it offered a more emotional, three-dimensional and eerie read, rather than a clinical and chronological account.
The whole thing is shocking and disgusting. It's hard to believe that the story of these poor quintuplets - held in captivity, raised by the Canadian government with no sense of independence or sense of self, ogled at by millions of paying vistors like zoo animals, made to advertise any and all Canadian products, and thus exploited for millions of dollars - is in fact TRUE!
This really is a sickening tale. Their entire childhood was stolen from underneath their feet and they were moulded into a freakshow for the whole world to gape at. It also acts as a cautionary tale for the age of 'kidfluencers' which I also find disturbing. I highly recommend this book!
A truly fascinating insight into the exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets. This book gave me chills throughout, and I could NOT put it down. Narrated from the POV of the sixth sister, who unfortunately did not survive birth, this depiction of events is fictional. Whilst this choice of narration is odd and perhaps not most reliable, on the whole I liked the author's choice of narration as it offered a more emotional, three-dimensional and eerie read, rather than a clinical and chronological account.
The whole thing is shocking and disgusting. It's hard to believe that the story of these poor quintuplets - held in captivity, raised by the Canadian government with no sense of independence or sense of self, ogled at by millions of paying vistors like zoo animals, made to advertise any and all Canadian products, and thus exploited for millions of dollars - is in fact TRUE!
This really is a sickening tale. Their entire childhood was stolen from underneath their feet and they were moulded into a freakshow for the whole world to gape at. It also acts as a cautionary tale for the age of 'kidfluencers' which I also find disturbing. I highly recommend this book!
October 28, 2023
High schoolers and adults are recommended to read this book exploring what happens when identical quintuplets were taken and presented to the world as entertainment while hearing the voices of how the biological parents felt as well as the girls themselves which they aren't meant for the world for long as we hear different experiences. We also hear the voice of the man who started the process of removing those girls from their birth parents' home and got the government to care for them while he made sure he can make money off of them.
December 30, 2021
This novel is so fascinating, infuriating, moving, powerful, and culturally significant above all else. Every time I tried to put it down, I had to turn the page to find out what happened next. The storyline is great, but the cultural critique is what really rang true to me. Buy this book now!
January 9, 2022
This book was beautifully written - haunting - and melancholy. It was hard to get through this as the writing was so profoundly real and I found myself transported into the lives of those little girls. Excellent first book and very excited for the next ones!
June 1, 2023
3.5 stars.
Loosely based around the true story of the Dionne Quintuplets. It's a fascinating read about sisterhood, growing up under the public eye, and what it could be like to be a spectacle as human beings from birth
Loosely based around the true story of the Dionne Quintuplets. It's a fascinating read about sisterhood, growing up under the public eye, and what it could be like to be a spectacle as human beings from birth
January 11, 2022
Really different; crazy that it’s based on a true story. Great book.
February 19, 2023
I love the way in which this novel reflects on childhood, spectacle, responsibility and language
June 18, 2023
A work of fiction based on the real lives of the 1930s Dionne quintuplets. After reading the novel, I read the Wikipedia article about the real sisters. Sad stuff 😞
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