The Stone Angel

by James W. Nichol (Dramatist), Margaret Laurence (Novelist)

It is the late 1960s, and Hagar Shipley’s days are drawing to an end. In the course of an afternoon, Hagar’s life unfolds: her childhood in a small prairie town, her Scottish immigrant father, the tumultuous relationship with her now-estranged husband, her sons, and their partners. Based on the novel by Margaret Laurence.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Classics, Literature, Canadian Literature, School, Adult Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

James W. Nichol has been a prominent playwright in Canada since 1970. Midnight Cab was inspired by his immensely popular radio drama of the same name, broadcast on CBC in thirty-five half-hour episodes. He lives in the country near Stratford, Ontario. Midnight Cab won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was shortlisted for the CCWA Gold Dagger. He is currently working on a second novel.

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best First Novel (2003): Midnight Cab

Reviews

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is where I run into a problem with the ratings.

You see, The Stone Angel is a fantastic book; amazingly well-written, the character doesn't break at all and is so strong I could be tricked into believing it was the author herself, and the prose is just beautiful.

That having been said, I didn't like it. It was depressing, frustrating, and made me feel horrible reading it; I really cannot stand "CanLit"'s tendency towards the bleak and dirty underside of life.

However, that does not mean it was a bad book. It means it's a wonderful book, but that my own literary prejudices and biases came into play whilst I was reading it and prevented me from enjoying it to its full potential.

Anyways. I'd still recommend it to people as a fantastic book, regardless of my own personal opinion on the tone.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt like the literary equivalent of running your fingers over an intricately carved mahogany chest. There was a sensual pleasure, the experience of savoring exquisite craftsmanship, the delight in touching quality materials and the awareness that such beauty is given to such a straight forward function.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never dreamed that this book would blow me away. Hagar Shipley is ninety-ish and at the end of her life. The book tells both stories of her last days as well as stories Hagar remembers about her life. What a tough bird she is, hard on her older son, indifferent to her husband. This is a book that feels very, very true. I recommend it highly and I’m adding it to my list of best reads ever. One question that nags at me: Is Hagar a relative? Can I blame it on her (and my) Scotch blood?

[Neil Mudde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Margaret Laurence's Stone Angels several times in my life, I am now in my 70th year, and what a different age makes.
Coming to Canada as an immigrant, this novel will always be a wonderful written Canadian Novel, I get a real sense of life on the Prairies, the smell of grass, the howling winds in the winter time.
Hagar still comes accross as a creator of her own misery, no doubt learned from her staunch and to me calvinist background. Any person with a sense of selfworth would not have allowed oneself to have gotten into the predictiment she did to spite her tyrant loveless Father.
Her Father was a firm believer in showing his authority by not sparing the rod, based on the false concept to "honor thy Father and Mother" regardless. This type of "Calvinistic doctrine" bases its hold on people by making them feel forever "unworthy" never "good enough" only by the grace of...... etc etc, a poor foundation to teach a young human being about ones uniqueness and selfworth as a person conceived and born as a divine human being which has every right to exist,simply by its birth and has the ability to aspire to greatness.
Little love justice and vengeance meted out in large doses.
Sadly those persons being raised in this stark loveless even violent setting often perpetuate this type of behaviour in their own family life, continueing this horrific cycle, as witnessed in this book.
Hagar now as an much older person reflects on her youth, showing little remorse but now has the feelings many older persons have of having lost the ability to choose taken away from them, being treated as people who cannot make decisions,shoved away in old folks homes, although I do feel a bit sad for her, but cannot help but feel she has created much of her own misery, as even towards the end of her life there is little sense that if she were able to do her life over again she would do it differently..
In "Stone Angel" Margaret Laurence has given us a bit of insight into her own life about, how she felt about growing older and having to depend on anyone else. She chose to take care of that part in her life herself.

[Joanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Because I am from Canada, I had to read this in high school. I cannot express how much I hate this book. I think it's well written but after reading this I was so depressed. The main character is so frustrating. She ruins her life by making poor choices and then is hateful to even her children.

[Sidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to put down - painful to read. Also the first book of the year that I am thoroughly pleased to have read. I'm going to have to read the rest of the cycle.

[Sarath Krishnan]

The Stone Angel as a Re-reading of Bible
Margaret Laurence, the most beloved author of Canada, was greatly influenced by the Biblical stories. She was a Sunday school teacher in one of the Churches of Unitarianism and during this time she wrote A Christmas Birthday Story in order to teach the children.
The Stone Angel is a re-reading of the Biblical story of Hagar. In the Bible (Book of Genesis) there is a story of a woman named Hagar who was a slave of Sara,wife of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah doesn't have children, so under her direction Abraham slept with Hagar and have a son named Ishmael.
In the Bible, the point of view of Hagar is neglected. She is more or less a negative character and also a victim of the patriarchal system. In The Stone Angel, we can find a bold woman, Hagar Shipley, who attacked the patriarchy even in old age.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The movie was good but the novel was set in the late 60's when there weren't cell phone so I guess the movie was bumped ahead. This made it hard for me to reconcile the movie with my reading of the book when it first was published. Why change the era and have Hagar talking about smoking marijuana in the seventies unless it was to appeal to younger movie goers? But, hey it's about a 90 year old woman and some of us remember the 60's and liked that decade.

[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always at a bit of a loss to describe my feelings about The Stone Angel. I think it's really well-written. Margaret Laurence knows her shit. She can craft a sentence like Rodin crafts clay.

At the same time, I don't like this story. At all. Elderly Hagar is a bitter awful person and while I understand her journey to the place, I don't feel any real sympathy for her.

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this tale of sparky old age by a Canadian writer. Hagar Shipley is a holy terror who leads her son and daughter-in-law a merry dance, but her reminiscences unpack a remarkable life. I loved her independent spirit, originality and sense of humour. Residential care just couldn't contain that free a spirit.

[Gold Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the tale of an allegedly intelligent woman who systematically ruins her life through bad decisions made not out of desire or common sense, but spite. It is boring, depressing, and completely inappropriate for young adults.

[Sadaf · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this book for school and absolutely hated it. It was so hard to get into and was extremely boring.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

2011 re-read: A bit of a different experience this time around, reading it for a class on aging in fiction. Obviously I focused on that aspect of the text more this time around, and I really have to applaud Laurence's nuanced depiction of what a terrible experience it can be, especially the question of how far children and others have to go to support their parents, and who deserves our sympathy in this situation. I kind of wish Laurence had spent more time on the long torture of Hagar's present life instead of the kind of standard life-review plotline. The prose is beautiful in a classical way, and although it was written decades ago I think Laurence serves as a great example of how the conventional realist novel can still be relevant today.

--

(7/10) I think I'm mainly going to echo the other reviewers here in saying that this book is well-written, draws a tremendously real and three-dimensional character of a proud old woman approaching the end of her life, but that it didn't really grab me. Maybe it was the subject matter, which felt fairly familiar, although maybe the tropes of kids-sending-mother-to-a-retirement-home stories weren't as established when this book was written almost fifty years ago. As other reviewers have noted, Hagar is a fairly aggravating character to spend 300 pages with. Well-written but not really reccomended except for Canlit buffs.

[Jamilla Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. I read this when I was going through my "I haven't read any Canadian Literature besides Margaret Atwood and only her most popular books" phase. This was one of the top ten Canadian lit books of all time, so I figured I needed to read it.

It wasn't "shout from the rafters" excellent, but it was a different kind of story in that it was from the perspective of an octogenarian woman, someone that society has cast-off or patronized once reaching a state where she's deemed to be of no value to society either as a breeder or as a producer (in terms of physical work.)

The stream of consciousness point of view was also a nice surprise,
reminding me of "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall". It was also very heartbreaking to see her love not being reciprocated in the relationship with her son. What an an authentic asshole Laurence crafted in Johnny, and the typical martyred mother in Hagar.

Overall, it's a good read. The Canadians were right. #asusual


Favorite/Memorable Quotes:
“You bet on the wrong horse”—Neer-do-well son John, Hagar’s favorite son, tells his mother after he continues to be a failure.

[Renimar · Rating 1 out of 5]

The notion that this should be lauded for being well-written, I say this: I should hope so, if it's published! What publisher would put out something that wouldn't sell, or not be well-written? (We see publishers put out poorly-written pap that sells well, though; one merely needs to look at the Twilight phenomenon.)

I read this well back in high school and my opinion hasn't especially changed. The character of Hagar is entirely unsympathetic. Here, we have a obstinate, small-minded caricature of independence who exercises her freedom into bad choices. Lashing out at the world, she treats those closest to her -- family -- poorly and in doing so personifies the adage 'misery loves company'. To top off these sins, her self-awareness of the terrible poison she exudes, the toxic presence she provides, is completely missing. To wit, she comes off as a narcissistic twit.

I could find no redemption in her character, her background, and her life. She represents exactly the kind of people that make the communities she lives in worse for her presence.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Wuthering Heights, this was another heavy book to swallow but not nearly as good. It was ok. I liked it when old, crotchety Hagar would make fun of and criticize others in her mind and sometimes out loud, but then it got old and annoying after awhile just as I suspect it would in real life. I did like the flashbacks into Hagar's life though. That was interesting. But I felt bad for the life that Hagar lived. So unhappy. And I cheered for no one in the book. There was no hero and not even anyone that I liked. I found myself becoming more like Hagar as I read more of the book.

[Kalani · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novel written in the first person, from the perspective of an old woman named Hagar. It's basically a retrospective on her life, complete with detailed descriptions of her miserable husband, her miserable children and children-in-law, untimely death, divorce, bodily noises, etc. The book was written in the early 1960's. I really wanted to like this book, however I found the main character very unlikable, unfortunately (probably obvious from the description I gave above). I generally like to keep books and re-read them, but this one is not a keeper. It's back to the Good Will for you, Stone Angel! So sorry.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this first as a teenager and subsequent readings have revealed new sides of Hagar's stony character for me to ponder.

While she may not be likeable, she is compelling. Definitely her own worst enemy, she squandered her relationships with her husband and sons and,as she nears 90, is beginning to get that. She says, referring to Bram, "his banner over me was only his own skin and now I don't know why it shamed me so", a sad moment of realization.

I once saw Ann Mortifee in a one-woman show, where she did the scene where Hagar wonders who the old lady in the mirroe can possibly be. As a young woman I didn't get this - now I do.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful & wonderful book. I read it first as a 20-something and empathized with Hagar while appreciating the spare story-telling. Then, I gave it to my mother for her birthday. She was bowled over by it, loved it, and lent it out to her friends. Why? They were all at the age where they were taking care of aging parents. Re-reading it myself some 30 years later, it's become a much better & more personal book for me.

[Corrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were parts of this book that made me laugh out loud. The narrator of the story is a 90-year old woman who moves back and forth from today into her past. I liked the way in which you get to know how this woman thinks and come to understand some of the regrets she feels for the life she has lived.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I appreciate Laurence’s writing, it was difficult to find empathy for her main character, a 90 year old woman who is cranky, mean spirited and emotionally frozen. She tells the story of her life, growing up on the Canadian prairie, her unhappy marriage, the death of her son and finally her pride and fierceness in facing her own mortality.

[Margo Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been so long since I read this book ... think it high time to give it another shot. Can't remember the FEELINGS it evoked, only that it was an all out weekend read. Non-stop, got involved with the family, and Hagar Shipley, the dear old soul. Come to think about it, I've got to march right over to the bookcase and find my copy.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for an English Lit. class that I was taking. I think I resented it while I was reading it, and so didn't really enjoy it, but once I was done I was glad I persevered because it was one of those books that shows you a facet of human nature (or that human nature is multi-faceted).

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fictional memoir of a woman at the end of her life reflecting on what it's like to be old and unwell. She also remembers the story of her life (which was mostly not very happy) and recounts this. It was a well written book but a bit too long with a lot of detail - a topic this depressing is difficult to continue reading about for so long.

[M.I. Lastman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Laurence ranks as a great, world-class author and this book is possibly her finest. It is also very much about rural Canada. My own grandmother, who had experienced much of what Hagar had, was dying at the time I read the book and I could hardly finish it, since it seemed so gut-wrenchingly at the heart of aging.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as an isu in my english class, i went in thinking it would be a huge struggle to get into. But i was incredibly surprised that it wasnt, it was actually a really good book and i found myself reading it for fun instead of as a homework assignment.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone from anywhere can love & relate to this author's books, which I love intensely, but being from the prairies will help. You can visit the real stone angel when you're done this book, in Neepawa, MB.

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I just got my old copy back from a friend. He didn't like as much as I did, but it really does focus more on women's issues so I can see why he didn't like it so well. This is such a good story about a young woman coming of age. Laurence is an amazing writer.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes back and forth between the last days of an old woman and her recollections of her life. I found the book as a whole to be hard and cold, a difficult read--reflecting a hard and cold life. At the same time, much of the writing was vivid and poetic and a joy.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this for High School English; I was living in Canada, and she's one of Canada's great female authors (she and the other Margaret [Atwood:], in my opinion!). It was probably this book that fueled the lust in me for great gothic novels, particularly those written by women.