What the Crow Said

by Robert Kroetsch

What the Crow Said tells the exuberant ribald, elemental tale of the citizens of a town somewhere on the weather-beaten border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.

After Vera Lang consorts with a swarm of bees, something changes in Big Indian. This prairie municipality-so remote from the rest of the world that its citizens aren't sure which province they live in-becomes somehow locked inside its own world of patience, yearning and willful struggle with nature.

Along the way, Big Indian emerges as a place simultaneously in the past and the present, the real and the imaginary, where a game of cards might last forever and a defeated farmer can freeze on his snowbound plow in June.

With his sun-sharpened imagery, unstoppable language play, and frank intimacy with the landscape, Robert Kroetsch creates in What the Crow Said a quintessentially prairie novel.

A new edition of the classic Canadian novel, What the Crow Said, a major work by one of western Canada's best-known and best-respected authors.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Canadian Literature, Magical Realism, Literature, Literary Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Robert Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer. He taught for many years at the University of Manitoba. Kroetsch spent multiple years in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Winnipeg where he continued to write. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Luscombe]

Sadly, I am apparently one of the last to learn that Canadian novelist (and author of one of my favourite novels, What the Crow Said) Robert Kroetsch died June 21, 2011. This novel was brilliant. I first read it for a Masters course in Magical Realism. It reminds me of a sort of Canadian One Hundred Years of Solitude. It also has one of the greatest first lines ever: "People, years later, blamed everything on the bees; it was the bees, they said, seducing Vera Lang, that started everything."

[Carissa-Lynn]

This book is weird, intelligent, and elaborate. The intro was dense and seemed to give away events in the book but I think it helped me understand and enjoy the actual novel to a greater degree. I appreciated the specifically Albertan/prairie imagery. The writing is quick and clever with potent imagery and analogies. I felt connected to characters and their extreme situations in a meaningful way. Overall I can see how reading this in a class setting would add depth to the intricacies of the writing but it was still an enjoyable read for me!

[Sarah]

I've never read Kroetsch before, so I had no idea what to expect. I assumed it would be a cross between Steinback and W.O. Mitchell, but I was surprised and delighted to find it far more surreal and dream-like, I've never read rural Canadian fiction like it before.

I would say that "What the Crow Said" is well paced, word choice is sumptuous, and while the setting relies heavily on seasons and weather, the subject matter is so strange one truly has no idea what to expect.

If you are in the mood for something similar to Ben Okri's "The Famished Road" or Gunter Grass' "The Tin Drum" I would highly recommend.

[Buried In Print]

This review was deleted following Amazon's purchase of GoodReads.

The review can still be viewed via LibraryThing, where my profile can be found here.

I'm also in the process of building a database at Booklikes, where I can be found here.

If you read/liked/clicked through to see this review here on GR, many thanks.

[Andrew Penner]

This is easily the weirdest book I've ever read. I just cannot wrap my head around this book, which is unfortunate because I love Kroetsch's other work, particularly his poetry. The low rating is not a mark against the book--I'm sure it's brilliant--but because I really did not enjoy this book. It's just completely over my head.

[Chloe]

I'm a huge fan of magical realism, so for me this book was a pleasure. Reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende, only the story is so touchingly Canadian, set in a small town somewhere between Alberta and Saskatchewan.

[Megan]

Some really beautiful writing in here, but ultimately too absurd for me to connect with.

[Olivia Brisebois]

What the hell.

[Stephen Novik]

Way too bizarre for me. I haven't read anything this odd since "The Double Hook", or even "Box Socials". After a while it got a little bit more compelling, however..... it's perhaps just too absurd for me. I prefer a straight ahead, direct narrative. Maybe some of the language (imagery, details) was too much...

[A]

The magical realist elements began to weigh the book down towards the end, almost making me nauseous with the excess detail. Can definitely tell Kroetsch was influenced by García Márquez. Strong reflections on the "war" between man and nature, and man's (not woman's, but man's) futile attempts to evade death.

[Carlos Sámano]

There is an essay by Stephen Slemon where he uses this book to analyze Magic Realism as a Post-Colonial Discourse.

I highly recommend it!

Here is the link.

https://web.archive.org/web/201804252...

[Elisa]

I don't think I've read a book in which this many people have shat themselves. This book was supposed to be quite the Canadian comedy, but I just wasn't feeling it. It was very much ridiculous, but I didn't really laugh all that often. It's an interesting story full of interesting people at least, like Zike the Albino (who it doesn't count with). It was odd though. Very odd.

[Colin]

Adult content. A magic realist text I am still reading for a course. I'm having a hard time getting through this one. Although I enjoy most CanLit, I am looking forward to the end of my course so that I can read anything I want again!

[HyL]

This is a brilliant piece of artistry. What the Raven Said requires engagement of the brain -no question- but the fantastic world he creates, and the marvellous heroines (and bumbling heroes) are unforgettable.

[Peter]

Canadian regionalism meets magic realism. Quirky, silly, fairly engaging.

[Yogi]

One of the best books I've ever read, and that was before moving to Eastern MT. Very surreal, and a good reflection of northern plains small town madness.

[Leonel Richard]

A book not for everyone. I read to the back cover out of obstinacy. The strange thing is that another of his books. 'The man from the Creeks' was one of my favorites.

[Susan]

Robert Kroetsch is a writer's writer. If he had lived in a major city, he would be much better know than he is now. This is a wonderful novel.

[Amanda]

i loved this book. it was probably the most erotic Canadian novel I've ever read. it was also sensuous, humorous, imaginative & eccentric.

[Katy Wimhurst]

Genius!