Kathleen Winter’s luminous debut novel is a deeply affecting portrait of life in an enchanting seaside town and the trials of growing up unique in ...
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Aug 06, 2011
Stephanie
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Though I wasn't initially very 'taken' by this book, once I reached the halfway point I became a lot more compelled to read on. I have never read a book like Annabel before. Though the subject matter certainly isn't something I'm judgemental or conservative about, the way it was portrayed sometimes made me feel a little uneasy. The abusive scene at Deadman's pond made me feel very uncomfortable, but it was effective. Overall, I thought that the writing was very good. I liked the majority of the
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Nov 21, 2011
Davytron
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I expect that everyone reading Annabel will take away something different. Teachers will reflect on their approach; parents will question their actions; health care professionals will question their practice; everyone will question their notions of black and white.
For me, reading the novel was an extremely uncomfortable and unsettling process that uncovered wounds I had long since buried or forgotten that I thought I had recovered from. So many of Wayne/Annabel's experiences were als More...
For me, reading the novel was an extremely uncomfortable and unsettling process that uncovered wounds I had long since buried or forgotten that I thought I had recovered from. So many of Wayne/Annabel's experiences were als More...
Oct 15, 2011
Cheryl
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Annabel is one of the most amazing books I've read in a long time. I have to say I was a bit skeptical when I picked it up, as it is a story of an intersexed child born into a family in rural Labrador. I was afraid to find a one-dimensional story with lots of overt politics. Instead, I found a complex story told in beautiful language that brought the land to life, as much as the lives of the people who find themselves in an extraordinary situation, totally foreign to this rural community.
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Aug 07, 2011
Yvonne
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A stunning novel. Set in Labrador in the 1960's in a tiny town called Croydon Harbour. Where everyone knows everyone, and men are men and women are women.
Wayne Blake is born a hermaphrodite and his father Treadway, makes the decision to raise him as a boy and name him Wayne.
This novel is heart piercing. The reader worries for Wayne as he grows older, and discovers through his parents and other peoples reactions to him, that he is different. He is a child that loves to cut out pictures from m More...
Wayne Blake is born a hermaphrodite and his father Treadway, makes the decision to raise him as a boy and name him Wayne.
This novel is heart piercing. The reader worries for Wayne as he grows older, and discovers through his parents and other peoples reactions to him, that he is different. He is a child that loves to cut out pictures from m More...
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Jul 25, 2011
Stephanie
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Beautifully written, though fairly boring.
“Annabel” revolves around the life of a hermaphrodite born in Labrador. No one except the child’s mother, father, and trusted neighbor know of his unusualness. The father chooses the raise the child as a boy, naming him Wayne, and hide the fact that he is both male and female from the world, against the mother’s own desire. The book continues through the life of Wayne. To summarize the book is trying to summarize the life of anyone; it simply More...
“Annabel” revolves around the life of a hermaphrodite born in Labrador. No one except the child’s mother, father, and trusted neighbor know of his unusualness. The father chooses the raise the child as a boy, naming him Wayne, and hide the fact that he is both male and female from the world, against the mother’s own desire. The book continues through the life of Wayne. To summarize the book is trying to summarize the life of anyone; it simply More...
Jul 23, 2011
Shannon
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I finished "Annabel" just a couple days ago. And i have to say that i'm incredibly ambivalent.
On the one hand, i was completely engrossed, especially as Wayne was hitting puberty and starting to discover that, yeah, things were quite as should be expected with his body. I found the book beautifully written, with well-drawn characters and a great physical setting.
On the other hand, i really wonder about Winters' use of a main character who's intersexed. It's clear sh More...
On the one hand, i was completely engrossed, especially as Wayne was hitting puberty and starting to discover that, yeah, things were quite as should be expected with his body. I found the book beautifully written, with well-drawn characters and a great physical setting.
On the other hand, i really wonder about Winters' use of a main character who's intersexed. It's clear sh More...
Jul 17, 2011
Stephanie
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I had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 stars, but I like to be generous, so decided upon 4. This novel was recently nominated at the Maritime Book Awards and I think that it may have won. The story idea was fascinating, a hermaphrodite born in Labrador in the late 1960s, so I anticipated a great read much like Middlesex. This child was raised as a boy, Wayne, and we get a great insight into his internal thoughts and his knowledge that he is different, but not knowing why. We also get a h
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May 29, 2011
Marilee
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“ANNABEL” by Kathleen Winter
a review by Marilee Pittman
The day after I started reading “Annabel” by Kathleen Winter, I journeyed to coastal Labrador. While it is only an hour and half ferry ride from the island of Newfoundland, it is virtually worlds away. There is something about Labrador that is so vast, untamed and lonely. People are different. They are closer to the earth, they know things about survival that most of us can’t recall or ever needed to know.
Kathleen Winter More...
a review by Marilee Pittman
The day after I started reading “Annabel” by Kathleen Winter, I journeyed to coastal Labrador. While it is only an hour and half ferry ride from the island of Newfoundland, it is virtually worlds away. There is something about Labrador that is so vast, untamed and lonely. People are different. They are closer to the earth, they know things about survival that most of us can’t recall or ever needed to know.
Kathleen Winter More...
May 15, 2011
Librarian
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I have to agree with the reviewers who praised Kathleen Winter's writing but took issue with the character development. I didn't understand how or why an author who could create such powerful images in my head about where the characters were would leave me so frustrated about who they were. I kept waiting for Wayne to just acknowledge his Annabel identity, once the truth was finally explained to him, but it never really happened. In the final section of the book, I felt he was just play-acting a
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Apr 25, 2011
Alexander
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When a child is born at the remote hamlet of Croydon Harbour, Labrador in 1968, his parents Jacinta (born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland) and Treadway Blake, a native of Labrador, and a deep woods trapper as was his father and his father before him, are faced with an unusual problem: the child is born with both female and male sex organs -- a true hermaphrodite. With surgery and hormone treatments, the child is raised as Wayne but the secrets of his origins are kept from him; only Thomas
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Feb 17, 2011
Kathleen
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This book is a beautiful study in characters. Wayne, or Annabel, the hermaphroditic main character is naturally the person we come to know most intimately, but there is hardly an inhabitant of the his small Canadian town who is not explored complexly. What I like best about this story is that complexity. While Treadway makes the decision to raise his child as a son and hide half of her nature, he is clearly not the villain of the piece. He is a man wise enough to fear society's reaction to t
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Jan 08, 2011
Felice
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Hermaphrodite novel number two of my life is Annabel by Kathleen Winter. Annabel is more commonly known as Wayne. He was born to Treadway and Jacinta in a remote coastal town in Labrador, Canada. The secret of Wayne's birth is known only to his parents, the doctor and the neighbor, Thomasina. It is Treadway and the doctor who decide that the neither fully male or female baby will be raised as his son, Wayne. The doctor physically sews up Wayne's female areas and what's done is done as far as Tre
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Aug 23, 2010
Kristina
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I KNOW that this book will be on my top 10 of 2010 list! It is certainly one of the most unique and riveting books I've read in a while. I'll tell you that when I saw the summary on Librarything I went a little *crazy* trying to get my hands on one. *smile* The author was kind enough to send me this as a gift after noticing my intense desire to read it. I really appreciated that!
It was a completely engaging book with such unique content that I finished all 400 + pages within a day and a ha More...
It was a completely engaging book with such unique content that I finished all 400 + pages within a day and a ha More...
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Jun 12, 2010
Annabel is the story of Wayne, a hermaphrodite child born in rural Labrador, and his, or her, or "its" difficult journey to adulthood.
A story like this risks collapsing into all kinds of nonsense which is ultimately more political than literary, and the kinds of simplistic conflicts that are, unfortunately, suggested by the jacket copy. But Kathleen Winter is too sensitive and careful a writer to let that happen. It's Winter's characters, rather than any grand ideas about gen More...
A story like this risks collapsing into all kinds of nonsense which is ultimately more political than literary, and the kinds of simplistic conflicts that are, unfortunately, suggested by the jacket copy. But Kathleen Winter is too sensitive and careful a writer to let that happen. It's Winter's characters, rather than any grand ideas about gen More...
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Mar 20, 2011
Andrew
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The Writer’s Trust Fiction Award, the Giller, and the Governor General’s Literary Award—few are the Can Lit titles that manage to snag nominations for one of those, maybe two of them. But nailing the trifecta? This year that honour is Kathleen Winter’s alone with her first novel, Annabel. Has it won anything yet? Sadly no. It was shut out of the Writer’s Trust and Giller awards by Emma Donoghue’s Room (see previous review here) and Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists respectfully. Will it win
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Aug 09, 2011
Anna
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This absolutely beautiful book about a hermaphrodite growing up in rural Labrador is a must-read. The basics: Wayne/Annabel is born to a mother who came from the city, a father whose soul is in the earth of Labrador, and a strong woman who has lost her husband and little girl to a fishing accident. Wayne grows up thinking he's a boy; his mother and his mother's friend can only think of him as two separate parts, a boy and a girl. As Wayne grows he learns more of himself and eventually has to dea
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Apr 14, 2011
Miranda
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The first thing I must comment on regarding this book is the writing. From the very first page I fell in love with Kathleen Winter’s writing style. The description and the imagery are beautiful and is without a doubt my favourite thing about this book. That’s not to say that the story wasn’t great too. Winter developed Wayne’s character very well and created a very likeable protagonist for her story. The struggles he faces and the internal conflicts he deals with are all very believable. The oth
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Jan 11, 2011
Megan
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The prose is quiet, lovely. The story is full of details about the characters, and about the natural landscape surrounding the events. It is told in a pretty basic manner, as a tale of growing up and self-discovery, without making a big deal of the fact that it's about an intersexed protagonist. At times the lengthy descriptions of Wayne's father seemed to be going off on a tangent, but it never lost me completely. I wasn't completely satisfied with the end; I wanted to know more about what
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Jul 29, 2011
Vicki
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Even a brief summing up of the story of Annabel is by no means simple. A child is born in a remote Labrador village in the late 1960s. The child is born a hermaphrodite, bearing both male and female reproductive organs. Three people know how the child came into the world: the child's parents and a woman who is a trusted family friend who attended at the birth. The three people have different perspectives then and throughout the child's life as to how the child should be raised. However, a decisi
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Feb 20, 2012
Emma
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I am very much looking forward to this evening's book group and the discussion about this - a book that I thought was truly wonderful.
From the cover notes, you get a sense of foreboding, a sense that in this place and this time, things can only end badly for the unknowing hermaphrodite child at the centre of the book. I was expecting the conclusion to be a 'Boys Don't Cry'-esque tragedy and the build-up to it to be full of ruined familial relationships, angst and general misery. Inst More...
From the cover notes, you get a sense of foreboding, a sense that in this place and this time, things can only end badly for the unknowing hermaphrodite child at the centre of the book. I was expecting the conclusion to be a 'Boys Don't Cry'-esque tragedy and the build-up to it to be full of ruined familial relationships, angst and general misery. Inst More...
Jun 07, 2011
Faith
rated it:
Always a bridesmaid---check out how many awards this debut novel was nominated for but didn't win! All 3 major literary awards in Canada, for starters. Kathleen Winter knows how to spin a story and her next book will be more highly decorated, I feel sure.
Perhaps the "problem" was that the title character, an intersex child (in this case a hermaphrodite), is almost not the point of this novel. Hir parents are equally compelling as characters, as is a family friend, Thomasina. More...
Perhaps the "problem" was that the title character, an intersex child (in this case a hermaphrodite), is almost not the point of this novel. Hir parents are equally compelling as characters, as is a family friend, Thomasina. More...
May 18, 2011
Lori
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This book is definitely not for everyone, as the subject matter is tough -- how to choose to raise a child who is a hermaphrodite, how a hermaphrodite discovers who they are, how that person decides to define themselves, and how the world defines them.
Unlike you may expect, though, the book isn't a political statement or a harsh book -- it's written in an almost lyrical way, partially, I believe, because the author chose the setting of remote Labrador for the the childhood home. Gro More...
Unlike you may expect, though, the book isn't a political statement or a harsh book -- it's written in an almost lyrical way, partially, I believe, because the author chose the setting of remote Labrador for the the childhood home. Gro More...
Jan 28, 2012
ηicolε
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I’m not going to go into a huge Saturday morning review here. I honestly tried, but the reviewing process was boring me as much as the book did. I think that would speak for itself, but reasoning is key. I know, I know...
Here we have another one of those typical really awesome unique ideas that take us nowhere. For readers that become really interested because the synopsis sounded really amazing, I understand. I’ve been there, read that, and I can tell you that your excitement isn’t ne More...
Here we have another one of those typical really awesome unique ideas that take us nowhere. For readers that become really interested because the synopsis sounded really amazing, I understand. I’ve been there, read that, and I can tell you that your excitement isn’t ne More...
Jun 26, 2011
Dot
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People in general can be very cruel to individuals whom they perceive as 'different'. Those who were born with...and live with...gender ambiguity are often treated with scorn, ridicule or sometimes even violence. We seem to hate and fear what we don't understand.
This is the subject of this novel by Kathleen Winter. The novel is set in a small community in Labrador, where traditional male and female roles are firmly entrenched. When a young mother gives birth to a baby with both More...
This is the subject of this novel by Kathleen Winter. The novel is set in a small community in Labrador, where traditional male and female roles are firmly entrenched. When a young mother gives birth to a baby with both More...
Mar 17, 2011
Kats
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This book took me to places I didn't know existed. People and the lifestyles in the provinces of Labrador & Newfoundland in Eastern Canada are so different to anything I have ever known, that initially I even wondered what time period the story was set in. It stated clearly that baby Wayne was born in 1968, but the hardship of his parents' life could have easily been a reflection of a 19th century rural life. The descriptions of the landscape, people's mentality, the climate and life in genera
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Jan 23, 2011
Shirley
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It's hard to believe when you read this book that this is Kathleen Winter's first novel. It is very well written and appears to be written by a veteran author. Her characterizations are quite wonderful, and her protagonist (Wayne/Annabel) is very realistic. As I was reading I couldn't help but wonder how she knew what growing up in a small remote Labrador village with all these hidden secrets like Wayne has must be very difficult, and she seems to have captured all Wayne's uncertainty and doubts
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Nov 15, 2011
Joy
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Jul 26, 2011
Greg
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Annabel is the story of a young child born as a hermaphrodite in a remote Labrador town a few hours away from Goose Bay. The author portrays the emotions, feelings and misgivings that this has on the lives of the child, parents and a concerned friend/midwife/teacher who is the only person other than the doctors and parents that knows the truth. They all struggle with the consequences of this truth.
This was beautifully written and a wonderful description of the life for many in Labrador More...
This was beautifully written and a wonderful description of the life for many in Labrador More...
Apr 13, 2011
Dana
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There are a couple of things I love about reading well written literature by Canadian authors that I sometimes miss in the writings of other nationalities: the connection to things that are real in my life, like Maple Leaf bologna; and the (really hard to find the right word here) Canadian-ness of the characters. If you've spent any time in Newfoundland and Labrador, I'm sure you would find an even deeper connection to this book than I did. The setting, the landscape, community and characters we
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Mar 11, 2011
Joanie
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This is the last book I've read on the Giller shortlist, and I'd have to say I would pick this for the prize if I could. It's a sensitive topic to write about, but the author manages to make it work and then some. Beyond the main character, Wayne, who is born a hermaphrodite, but the father, Treadway, chooses to raise the baby as a boy, and with that, the child grows up trying to repress the urges to be different, as it is known that Treadway would disapprove.
Kathleen Winter has suc More...
Kathleen Winter has suc More...
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