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Swimming Toward the Light
The thirteen linked stories in Joan Clark's Swimming Toward the Light are like a spectrum of bright colours refracted into a clear white beam. Layer by layer, they reveal the life of Madge Murray, from her childhood in wartime Nova Scotia and her youth in New Brunswick, to her defiance as a young divorcee and her continuing quest as a West Coast artist. Always, Madge struggles to live in peace, dependent by instinct but pulled towards independence by her circumstances and the discovery of her own creativity. Decent, fallible, and startlingly complex, Madge's family, from her distant ancestors to her grown children, shares her own tangled nature. In Swimming Toward the Light , Clark portrays a determined girl growing into a strong woman who faces violence and misery head-on. Some stories, such as "Luna Moths," contain passages of lyrical beauty, and others, including "War Stories" and "The Train Family," are rich with the poignancy that comes with delayed understanding.
Paperback
First published March 1, 2003
About the author
Joan Clark
35 books52 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Joan Clark BA, D.Litt (hon.) (née MacDonald)is a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with English major in 1957.[1] She has worked as a teacher
Clark lived in Alberta for two decades and attended Edmonton's University of Alberta. She and Edna Alford started the literary journal Dandelion in that province in the mid-1970s. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada, settling in Newfoundland.
Joan Clark's early work consisted primarily of literature for children and young adults, such as Girl of the Rockies (1968), The Hand of Robin Squires (1977), and The Moons of Madeleine (1987). By contrast, her 1982 short-story collection, From a High Thin Wire, is a decidedly mature and sometimes sexually charged work. This volume was revisited by Clark and republished with revisions in 2004. Clark has a reputation for continuously revising her works even after their initial printing.
Joan Clark's next publication for adult readers was The Victory of Geraldine Gull (1988), a novel examining the clashes of culture and religion between Cree, Ojibwa, and white communities in Niska, a village in Hudson Bay. The Victory of Geraldine Gull was a finalist for the GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD and the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Clark published a second collection of short stories, Swimming Towards the Light, in 1990. The following year she was presented with the Marian Engel Award, recognizing her entire body of work.
Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck (1993) was the first of two novels by Clark based on the Viking presence in Newfoundland. The novel focuses on Freydis Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik the Red and sister to Leif ("The Lucky") Eirikson. The Dream Carvers (1995) follows the adventures of Thrand, a Norse child.
Clark wrote her first published novel as a young stay-at-home mother, writing in longhand during her infant son’s naptimes. “I had never written fiction before and was amazed that I had been walking around without knowing that there was a story inside my head. That joy of discovery has kept me writing ever since.”
Clark served on the jury at the 2001 Giller Prize.
Clark lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Joan Clark BA, D.Litt (hon.) (née MacDonald)is a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with English major in 1957.[1] She has worked as a teacher
Clark lived in Alberta for two decades and attended Edmonton's University of Alberta. She and Edna Alford started the literary journal Dandelion in that province in the mid-1970s. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada, settling in Newfoundland.
Joan Clark's early work consisted primarily of literature for children and young adults, such as Girl of the Rockies (1968), The Hand of Robin Squires (1977), and The Moons of Madeleine (1987). By contrast, her 1982 short-story collection, From a High Thin Wire, is a decidedly mature and sometimes sexually charged work. This volume was revisited by Clark and republished with revisions in 2004. Clark has a reputation for continuously revising her works even after their initial printing.
Joan Clark's next publication for adult readers was The Victory of Geraldine Gull (1988), a novel examining the clashes of culture and religion between Cree, Ojibwa, and white communities in Niska, a village in Hudson Bay. The Victory of Geraldine Gull was a finalist for the GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD and the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Clark published a second collection of short stories, Swimming Towards the Light, in 1990. The following year she was presented with the Marian Engel Award, recognizing her entire body of work.
Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck (1993) was the first of two novels by Clark based on the Viking presence in Newfoundland. The novel focuses on Freydis Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik the Red and sister to Leif ("The Lucky") Eirikson. The Dream Carvers (1995) follows the adventures of Thrand, a Norse child.
Clark wrote her first published novel as a young stay-at-home mother, writing in longhand during her infant son’s naptimes. “I had never written fiction before and was amazed that I had been walking around without knowing that there was a story inside my head. That joy of discovery has kept me writing ever since.”
Clark served on the jury at the 2001 Giller Prize.
Clark lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 4, 2016
This is a collection of stories which almost appears to be a novel despite the author’s assertion that it was not written that way. Each story can stand on its own, but all are interconnected and involve the same group of characters. They spotlight Madge, exploring her life as she grows from childhood to middle age, struggling to discover who she is and what she needs to be the person she wants to be.
The collection begins in the 1940s in wartime Nova Scotia with a story about a family trip to the beach on the shores of Nova Scotia. It ends thirteen stories later when Madge returns to the same beach following her father’s death.
The reader is introduced to the many characters in Madge’s life. Laddie is Madge’s father, a remote man who struggles with numerous business failures. Her mother Beth is fragile and suffers from depression. Both drink too much and frequently argue. Madge tries to understand her parents and their volatile relationship which often frightens and confuses her. Ardith is Madge’s older sister, a girl who seems more grounded than Madge and better understands her place in the world.
The family has many secrets and the mysteries surrounding those secrets runs through all of the stories. They include Laddie’s mother’s suicide, Madge’s Aunt running off with the radio from the kitchen on VE Day and clues that lead Madge to believe her mother had an affair.
As Madge grows older she is revealed as a passive woman, one who lets live happen to her rather than steering it in any particular direction. Her passivity begins in the initial story with her casual acceptance of a boy’s sexual advances and moves on as she goes to university to study art but is quickly swept up in a relationship with David Ogilvy, a boy from a well to do family. She is soon pregnant, drops out of college and without much thought marries David who she hardly knows. Four children follow in quick succession as Madge accepts the busy life of motherhood and her marriage flounders. It is only when her husband leaves for another woman that Madge takes affairs into her own hands, courageously bundles up the children and heads out West. There she becomes a moderately successful artist, only realizing her potential when she must fend for herself. She takes on various lovers and begins an independent life, one in which she discovers she enjoys being alone.
Forty years later when she is once again on the East Coast beach with her father who is failing and confined to a wheelchair, she suddenly gains a sense of her life journey. She has learned to live on her own terms, independent of the relationships she has had with men or the children she has brought into the world. This constant tension between the need for independence and solitude and dependence on others is a thread pulled through all the stories. One can be too independent and forego the risks involved in a relationship, but taking that road means one misses out on many valuable life experiences.
All the stories resonate with the theme of families--their rivalries, their secrets and their misunderstandings. But at its core, it is the slow journey of Madge’s understanding of herself, her search for a life of fulfilment and the slow evolution of her impressions of youth to the insights of a grown woman. With each story, Clark adds another layer to Madge’s character and both the reader and Madge gain a fuller understanding of the conundrum many women face, that of being alone and independent or firmly attached to the emotional security of marriage and motherhood. Madge’s attitudes to herself, her family and her marriage clearly reflect the attitudes and assumptions of women born in the forties. At that time, the roles of wife and mother were taken on without much consideration and women were expected to put aside their own personal needs. With motherhood the main goal, they never considered their own needs until they were suddenly thrust into a re-evaluation of their lives by the norms of a rapidly changing society.
Many of the things Madge learns about herself happen suddenly and unexpectedly rather than from a plodding analysis of her thoughts and feelings. They are small epiphanies that help her understand her changing self and the world around her as she tries to make sense of it all.
I did make a startling discovery in the story titled “Sisters” when an accident causes Madge’s mother’s death. It is almost an exact replica of the accident that was at the heart of Clark’s most recent novel “Birthday Lunch”. The similarities are incredible, from the details of the accident and its context to what happens following the event. It was curious, as if Clark felt she had the nub of a novel hidden in one of these short stories.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing is strong and its themes will resonate with almost every reader who picks up the book.
The collection begins in the 1940s in wartime Nova Scotia with a story about a family trip to the beach on the shores of Nova Scotia. It ends thirteen stories later when Madge returns to the same beach following her father’s death.
The reader is introduced to the many characters in Madge’s life. Laddie is Madge’s father, a remote man who struggles with numerous business failures. Her mother Beth is fragile and suffers from depression. Both drink too much and frequently argue. Madge tries to understand her parents and their volatile relationship which often frightens and confuses her. Ardith is Madge’s older sister, a girl who seems more grounded than Madge and better understands her place in the world.
The family has many secrets and the mysteries surrounding those secrets runs through all of the stories. They include Laddie’s mother’s suicide, Madge’s Aunt running off with the radio from the kitchen on VE Day and clues that lead Madge to believe her mother had an affair.
As Madge grows older she is revealed as a passive woman, one who lets live happen to her rather than steering it in any particular direction. Her passivity begins in the initial story with her casual acceptance of a boy’s sexual advances and moves on as she goes to university to study art but is quickly swept up in a relationship with David Ogilvy, a boy from a well to do family. She is soon pregnant, drops out of college and without much thought marries David who she hardly knows. Four children follow in quick succession as Madge accepts the busy life of motherhood and her marriage flounders. It is only when her husband leaves for another woman that Madge takes affairs into her own hands, courageously bundles up the children and heads out West. There she becomes a moderately successful artist, only realizing her potential when she must fend for herself. She takes on various lovers and begins an independent life, one in which she discovers she enjoys being alone.
Forty years later when she is once again on the East Coast beach with her father who is failing and confined to a wheelchair, she suddenly gains a sense of her life journey. She has learned to live on her own terms, independent of the relationships she has had with men or the children she has brought into the world. This constant tension between the need for independence and solitude and dependence on others is a thread pulled through all the stories. One can be too independent and forego the risks involved in a relationship, but taking that road means one misses out on many valuable life experiences.
All the stories resonate with the theme of families--their rivalries, their secrets and their misunderstandings. But at its core, it is the slow journey of Madge’s understanding of herself, her search for a life of fulfilment and the slow evolution of her impressions of youth to the insights of a grown woman. With each story, Clark adds another layer to Madge’s character and both the reader and Madge gain a fuller understanding of the conundrum many women face, that of being alone and independent or firmly attached to the emotional security of marriage and motherhood. Madge’s attitudes to herself, her family and her marriage clearly reflect the attitudes and assumptions of women born in the forties. At that time, the roles of wife and mother were taken on without much consideration and women were expected to put aside their own personal needs. With motherhood the main goal, they never considered their own needs until they were suddenly thrust into a re-evaluation of their lives by the norms of a rapidly changing society.
Many of the things Madge learns about herself happen suddenly and unexpectedly rather than from a plodding analysis of her thoughts and feelings. They are small epiphanies that help her understand her changing self and the world around her as she tries to make sense of it all.
I did make a startling discovery in the story titled “Sisters” when an accident causes Madge’s mother’s death. It is almost an exact replica of the accident that was at the heart of Clark’s most recent novel “Birthday Lunch”. The similarities are incredible, from the details of the accident and its context to what happens following the event. It was curious, as if Clark felt she had the nub of a novel hidden in one of these short stories.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing is strong and its themes will resonate with almost every reader who picks up the book.
March 15, 2017
This is meant to be short stories, but they all have a thread as Madge is the protagonist. Through these stores we get to learn about her life from childhood and adulthood. Some cover a few weeks, others cover years. On some Madge is a first person narrator, on others the narrator is impersonal. Overall I enjoyed the characters depth and their distinct personalities, interests, backgrounds. Would have preferred a novel, but quite enjoyed this nonetheless!
The downside of the short stories is that there is some repetition as they are also meant to be stand alone, so a few facts are repeated once in a while.
This was one of the first books I ever bought online as I wanted to read more from the author of 'Latitudes of Melt'.
The downside of the short stories is that there is some repetition as they are also meant to be stand alone, so a few facts are repeated once in a while.
This was one of the first books I ever bought online as I wanted to read more from the author of 'Latitudes of Melt'.
March 17, 2013
A series of character-base stories in the life of Madge. I can't really even call them stories. Vignettes? Think of Stephen King's, Graham Greene's, or O Henry's stories. These are nothing like them. Light summer cottage reading to put yourself asleep in a hammock with.
August 26, 2011
One of my all-time favorites.
April 26, 2016
A beautifully descriptive short stories by an Atlantic Canadian author. A few of the stories I did not enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews