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In Canadian short-story writer Bonnie Burnard's deeply moving novel, we meet the Chambers famil... read full description
In Canadian short-story writer Bonnie Burnard's deeply moving novel, we meet the Chambers famil... read full description
reviews
Nov 22, 2008
Bonnie
rated it: 
Read it twice to remember why it was I liked it the first time. Now I'll have to pull it off the shelf again one day.
I can say that I liked it far more than her book of short stories.
I can say that I liked it far more than her book of short stories.
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Dec 27, 2008
Jane
rated it:
This book was given to me as a gift (one found at a yard sale for $1), and I encountered it knowing nothing about the author or the story.
I loved it. It's the story of a family over 50 years, which seems kind of ho-hum, been-there-read-that, right?
Burnard makes it into something more. She makes daily life and the big events (illness, early death, loss of love) equally riveting. I slowed down as I came to the last few chapters of this novel, not wanting to hurry it.
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I loved it. It's the story of a family over 50 years, which seems kind of ho-hum, been-there-read-that, right?
Burnard makes it into something more. She makes daily life and the big events (illness, early death, loss of love) equally riveting. I slowed down as I came to the last few chapters of this novel, not wanting to hurry it.
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Jan 31, 2010
Clytee
rated it:
This is probably a rather obscure book that I found at DI for a dollar. It is Canadian (and won the Canadian "Giller Prize"), about a man who came home from World War II (just as my father did) to a small town (as my father did), and the story of his life, and descendants from the 1950's to 1997. The time period I know well. The setting, though in Canada, is quite similar to the small town I grew up in.
I was not happy with some of the character's decisions, but was interes More...
I was not happy with some of the character's decisions, but was interes More...
Mar 03, 2011
Robin Marie
rated it: 
I read more than half of this book before I finally admitted that I couldn't care less what happened, and there are too many books in the work to waste my time feeling unfulfilled. This book is about a family, so you would expect some sort of emotion, some human aspect. Instead it felt like a laundry list of the family events accompanied by excessive detail about their surroundings. A moment would peak and the author simply wrote "then they understood why she was crying", except she ne
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Sep 18, 2011
Candice
rated it: 
I almost gave up on this a couple of times. It is a family story told over a period of 50 years, but the author goes into way too much detail. It begins in 1949, then jumps to 1953, then 1955 and on up to 1997. Sometimes these gaps make the story a bit difficult to follow. A child is born in 1963, and is mentioned in 1970, but you don't really know much about her until she is an adult in 1986. With the birth of children and grandchildren, there were so many characters I had trouble keeping
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Aug 17, 2011
Ronald
rated it:
One of those novels in which the characters have real depth and you are sad to say goodbye after the last page. The central family is about to disintegrate when a quiet woman appears to render assistance and become the central force about which the growing extended family is anchored. Especially relevant for those born shortly after World War II. This book is on the reading list "Canadian Fiction" in Nancy Pearl's Book Lust. It was a number-one bestseller in Canada and won the prestigi
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Feb 02, 2011
Judy
rated it: 
I read this with my book club. It is set in southern Ontario and the day to day lives of the family described is very familiar to me. However, I found the conversational style - with run on sentences that diverged from the point - very annoying. As one of the other book clubbers said, it was like listening to your aunt at the dinner table - telling a story with all the explanations and diversions. It was generally liked (or loved) by several people in my book club.
Feb 03, 2011
Deb
rated it: 
A moving and memorable book. Burnard builds a family of fully developed characters and lets life happen to them over 50 years. The ordinary business of living - birth, childhood, friendship, love, marriage, divorce, illness, aging, death -- unfolds, sometimes in painfull and unexpectedly ways, much like real. And then people cope and move as best they can. These people became real to me and I thought about them long after the last page.
Jul 04, 2010
Sheri
rated it:
I loved this book. After I got into it, it felt like home to me. So many of the things she writes about have happened to me or have been part of my experience growing up in small town Canada: the memorial arenas, the family gatherings, Canadian Tire, family drama, etc. Her mastery of detail is amazing and her ability to demonstrate the emotion of the characters is so real.
I can see why it won the 1999 Giller prize. The bonus is that I picked this book up for $1 at our Friends of More...
I can see why it won the 1999 Giller prize. The bonus is that I picked this book up for $1 at our Friends of More...
Jul 25, 2009
Debbie (Readerbuzz)
rated it:
The characters and the plot
twist and turn in ways you
don't anticipate and don't
want them to go. Nevertheless,
the characters and the plot
seem to have to go the way
they go. Recommended.
twist and turn in ways you
don't anticipate and don't
want them to go. Nevertheless,
the characters and the plot
seem to have to go the way
they go. Recommended.
Feb 24, 2009
Shane
rated it:
I couldn't finish this book, surprisingly, even though it won the Giller Prize. The slow moving start, that went on for about fifty pages before I gave up, broke all the rules that editors want these days, of hooking the reader on the first page or risk losing him forever.
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Aug 01, 2011
Kristine
rated it:
It took a bit to relax into the writing style of this book. The author is very detailed and she digresses into what at times seemed really superfluous things. But overall a good generational novel on family love and loyalty
Jul 09, 2011
Claudia
rated it:
ahhhhh,one of those,stick-with-it,snuggle in bed with books.I love generational books like this,it was a great read up there with "we were the Mulvaney's",something I can take off the bookshelf and read again.
Aug 05, 2011
A warm, rambling story about a family, the story is ordinary and also beautiful in it's honest simplicity of how relationships and life unravels within this family.
Sep 13, 2009
Mary-Jane
rated it:
Not recommended. It goes through the life of a lot of characters, but I didn't really sense there was a point to the story. I read it because it won the Giller Prize.
Jan 23, 2011
CynthiaA
rated it:
The 2000 Giller Prize winner, this book is like looking through old family movies after a family dinner. I feel all warm, cozy and filled up.
Jan 18, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
A little happier than "Crow Lake", but very similar in style and domesticity. Pleasant, but hardly earth-shattering.
Sep 17, 2010
Brit
rated it:
Interesting, kind of slow moving at times and occasionally hard to follow the names that keep popping up and seemed to multiply.
Jan 31, 2012
not sure if I will finish this; so far it has not engaged me ... someone else called it "a laundry list"
Apr 26, 2009
John
rated it:
I loved this book. It is just a plan story about an ordinary family and that is what makes it special.
Aug 24, 2007
Lauren
rated it:
This is a book I enjoy re-reading. Everytime it comes back to me after being loaned to a friend, I sit down to read the first chapter and I get hooked.
A Good House follows a Canadian family over 5 decades - checking in every five-8 years or so, like the film series Seven Up. A husband comes home from the war. Kids grow up, mothers die, fathers remarry and new bavies come. college, grandchildren, divorce, love affairs. Wedding dinners by a lake. Wakes and funerals. Everything and no More...
A Good House follows a Canadian family over 5 decades - checking in every five-8 years or so, like the film series Seven Up. A husband comes home from the war. Kids grow up, mothers die, fathers remarry and new bavies come. college, grandchildren, divorce, love affairs. Wedding dinners by a lake. Wakes and funerals. Everything and no More...
Oct 29, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
My track record for reading books in their entirety is spotty. (I'm still trying to figure out what that says about me!) However, I gave it a fair shake. I probably read half of it, and came to the conclusion that this book truly earned its backburner status. I couldn't figure out where it was going. I don't usually need a mystery to solve, but I don't believe the author built in enough of a sense of anticipation. Also, with too many characters to follow, and matter-of-fact, cursive story-tellin
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Dec 05, 2011
Bethany
rated it:
This book has some great pointers but it's fairly depressing and includes a lot of sex.
Aug 09, 2010
Stacey
rated it:
I had a hard time getting started with this book. It took a couple of chapters but I'm glad I stuck with it.
Aug 17, 2009
Karla
rated it:
I read this book for a book club or perhaps I wouldn't have picked it up. It is very, very descriptive seemingly over so but...you can miss details that are important to the storyline. As much as you will want to rush through, slow down and enjoy it!
May 11, 2009
Wendy
rated it:
This book is very slow to start. I enjoyed the middle section. The end was very slow with so many children/grandchildren that it became confusing.
Oct 05, 2010
Atcekg
rated it:
A bit boring and characters weren't entirely brought out. By the end of the book, there were a lot of relatives to keep straight.
