Open Arms

by Marina Endicott

2001 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award Shortlist:: Open Arms, Marina Endicott's first novel, is a big-hearted, funny, and occasionally clumsy debut. It is the story of three periods in the life of Bessie Smith Connolly, a young woman with a decidedly checkered upbringing. The first third of Open Arms, in which 17-year-old Bessie stays with her mother in Saskatoon for the first time since early childhood, is incredibly funny. Here, Endicott reveals herself to be a formidable comic writer, capable of squeezing love, repulsion, and laughter from her readers in the space of a single paragraph.

As Open Arms continues, however, Endicott moves into more serious territory, and her sense of narrative pace begins to let her down. The centre of the book covers Bessie's journey to Galiano Island, ostensibly to visit her father, Patrick, an irresponsible but brilliant poet. She finds his current partner, Doreen, pregnant with twins, but Patrick is nowhere to be found. The conclusion of Open Arms sees Bessie teaming up with her grandmother, Elizabeth, to search for her mother, Isabel, an itinerant singer and newspaper distributor who has disappeared into the wilds of northern Saskatchewan. Their trip is colourful but strangely muted, interspersed with occasional moments of self-revelation and leading to an ending that depends too much on a character who is barely present. But Open Arms is a promising debut, and if Endicott continues to refine her strengths she will soon be a novelist to be reckoned with. --Jack Illingworth

Genres: Canada, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Marina Endicott was born in Golden, BC, and grew up with three sisters and a brother, mostly in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director before going to England, where she began to write fiction. After London she went west to Saskatoon, where she was dramaturge at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre for many years before going farther west to Mayerthorpe, Alberta; she now lives in Edmonton. Her first novel, Open Arms, was short-listed for the Amazon/Books In Canada First Novel award in 2002. Her second, Good to a Fault, was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize and won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, Canada/Caribbean region. The Little Shadows, her latest book, longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, was a finalist for this year’s Governor General’s Award and will be published in the UK and Australia in spring 2012. She is at work on a new novel, Hughtopia.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a gentle, sweet well written book full of hope and life.

There are essentially two stories told in the book: one when Bess is 20 and visits her father’s new wife with her half sister; and one 4 years later when Bess goes in search of her mother with her grandmother. In some ways the book is Bess, slowly sorting herself out as she reaches some sort of maturity. It has clumsy moments and awkward ones, ones of great compassion and kindness and irritated ones. Much like most teenagers and young adults. Bess is so ordinary she is each of us in some ways, despite the odd life she has had.

The book about women and mothers and daughters and sisters; and how sometimes we don't say and do what maybe we should. It’s about how sometimes we can be so kind to each other and other times really screw things up.
and its about love and the many ways it is shown.
And disregarded too.

The characters are very human and completely believable. Even the bit actors in the story have warmth and depth.

The end is a bit Hollywood for my tastes, but in small town such as where the action takes places, maybe coincidence has a different meaning from in the big cities.

a lovely book – worth borrowing and reading on a rainy weekend

[Dawna Scrivens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly Canadian story that stretches from coast to coast and in between. Fortressed by their inner strength, the women are fraught with frailties as they maneuver through their not so normal lives. At times, they have each moved away, but they can never really be away; from the love they share with each other, from their intertwined family historys and from the webs of connection and belonging that holds them all together.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Open Arms, Marina Endicott’s beguiling debut novel, chronicles the unsettled early years of Bessie Smith Connolly, from childhood to young adulthood. The source of her troubles and the focus of much of Bessie’s angst is her impulsive, beautiful, unreliable mother Isabel, who was very young herself when Bessie was born. To add to her chaotic upbringing, Bessie’s father, Patrick, an award-winning poet, left Isabel and his daughter in pursuit of his muse, subsequently marrying twice more. When Bessie was small, her mother was picked up in a drug bust and ended up serving time in prison. Bessie was raised in Nova Scotia by Isabel’s parents, a time she recalls fondly as idyllic, filled with love and, given her background, uncharacteristically stable. However, when we meet her the placid years are behind her and Bessie, in her teens and following the death of her grandfather, is living in Saskatoon with her mother. Isabel shares a house with Katherine, Patrick’s second ex-wife, and brings in money with odd jobs and by singing at a local bar. The novel is constructed in three sections. “With the Band” is set in Saskatoon and draws a vivid portrait of Isabel’s fluid moods and capricious nature as she takes up with a much younger man and seems to go out of her way to avoid the messy complications that making an emotional commitment to her daughter would entail. In the second section, “The Giant Doreen,” Bessie and her younger half-sister Irene, Katherine and Patrick’s daughter, travel to British Columbia to stay with Patrick and current wife Doreen, the dramatic complication being that Patrick is absent and Doreen is pregnant and on the verge of giving birth. The final section, “To the Top of the World,” is constructed as a quest, as Bessie (now in her 20s) and her grandmother chase across country after Isabel, who is moving in a seemingly random fashion from place to place, involved in a personal quest of her own and, as usual, giving no thought to anyone else’s wishes or needs. Open Arms is in many respects a meditation on motherhood: its various forms, the pain and joy, the push and pull, the unrealistic expectations, the limits on what some woman are able or willing to give. The women we meet in these pages are uniformly strong and courageous, used to hard knocks, accustomed to picking up the pieces left behind by their men and carving out an independent path in the world. Their story is a captivating one, emotionally persuasive and dramatically resonant. Bessie Smith is an endearing narrator who relates events in a clear, rational voice, pulling no punches, telling it like it is. The ending, where we witness the author’s hand somewhat obviously at work, might seem a bit convenient. But this does not change the fact that fans of Endicott’s later novels who might have missed or overlooked this book will find much to enjoy here. It can also be stated with something close to certainty that anyone who appreciates fiction that features strong female characters will find that Open Arms, written with grace, wit and confidence, is well worth seeking out.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an endearing tale of three generations of women and the ties that bind them. It is a story about the Canadian landscape, or at least sizeable chunks of it in Nova Scotia, in Saskatchewan, in British Columbia. It is a story about forgiveness, both of self and others, and about openness toward the future, toward life. It is part road trip, part family saga, but throughout there is a clear-eyed realism that finds voice in a number of characters. I found the relationship between Bessie and Daniel the least believable of the many relationships detailed and followed in the book, and given the amount of weight their relationship has to bear, that is not a minor critique, but the novel overall is redeemed by the humane vision of the author, and by the love the characters have for each other, for in the end it is above all a love story.

[Anna Noga · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This is a gentle, sweet, well written book full of hope."

Those are not my words but another reviewer's...Kim from 2009. That pretty much summarizes it. Each section (there are 2) starts off with challenges and some disfunction. Somehow, people do not shirk from their responsibilities (except Patrick) or refuse to take blame for past actions and both sections end very positively. It's so rare in character books that the characters don't wallow in self pity through half the book. There are many aspects of this book that are unrealistic--like the very end....and the fact that 3 exes of the same man all get along so well. Who cares though. I felt happy at the end.

[Diana Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy all of Marina's books. She has a way of letting you into the world of the characters that makes them and their situation seem so real. It's sometimes hard to remember you are reading fiction.

[Doriana Bisegna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was Endicott's debut novel. I enjoyed it well enough and look forward to reading more of her.

[Jane Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

mostly set in saskatoon, her writing is amazing.

[Shirley Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its crux, this book is about mothers - the ones that love us and the ones that hurt us, the ones we continue to search for, and the ones we wish to be. It is heartfelt and beautifully written.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a year ago I started reading another book by this author and had to abandon it - just too confusing and uninteresting. This book is a Book Club choice and so I need to read it, but was leary of it being any good.

I was pleasantly surprised. It is a fairly gentle story of crazy disfunction in this young 17 year old's life, who is telling the story. Bessie has lived with her grandparents since she was young. Now, at 17 yrs. of age, she is grieving the death of her grandfather and the split up from her boyfriend. She decides to escape the grief and go to live with her mother, Isobel who is "a piece of work." Isobel lives with her ex-husband's 2nd wife, and they get along well as they share the same sentiments about their ex-husband. Isobel is a free spirit and is always taking off and finding new boyfriends to live with for awhile.

So, the drama goes on for young Bessie to "find herself" in the midst of chaos. At one point, she visits her father's 3rd wife who is about to deliver twins and her father has taken off again - you get the picture about disfunction!?

Bessie, the main character is a likeable person. You just want her to be able to break the cycle that her parents have imposed on her.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Fiction, Contemporary, Canadian)
Marina Endicott is a multi-award winning Canadian author who read her work at the 2013 Read by the Sea festival in River John, Nova Scotia. When I heard her, I realized that I’d completely missed reading her work, so I determined to begin with her first book and read on!

Open Arms, a finalist for the 2003 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, centres on Bessie Smith Connolly, 17, who has been living with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, but has come to live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan with her renegade mother Isabel. Isabel delivers newspapers in the early morning to pay the rent, and haunts the clubs at night, hoping to have a chance to “sing with the band” (any band). When Isabel goes missing, Bessie and her Nova Scotian grandmother go on a road trip to track her down. I loved Endicott’s writing and am definitely going to continue in her canon.

Read this if: you enjoy stories that explore the relationship between mothers and daughters without unnecessary sentimentality. 4 stars

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Open Arms" was podcast on the CBC's Between the Covers in what appears to be an abridged form. Story is narrated by the oldest daughter of a disfunctional set of families resullting from the same paternal reprobate. Bookk contains elements of growing up story and the picarsque.

[beentsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this was almost a perfect book. I love how Endicott writes and the characters she creates. Everyone is presented in a warts and all manner that makes them feel so real and fallible. Great stuff.

[༺Kiki༻ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to on CBC Radio's Between the Covers podcast.

[Carla Sokotuk]

Wrong Author-this is not the book I'm currently reading

[p3reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful story of mothers and daughters.

[Joanne]

Fabulous book! W.P. Kinsella called it a 'substantial, sweet-natured novel, full of hope and promise" and I think that fits it to a "T"!