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Fall on Your Knees

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 29,359 ratings · 1,853 reviews

“What a wild ride — I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough,” Oprah Winfrey told her viewers as she announced Fall on Your Knees as her February 2002 Book Club selection. Set largely in a Cape Breton coal mining community called New Waterford, ranging through four generations, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s dark, insightful and hilarious first novel focuses on the Piper sisters and t...more “What a wild ride — I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough,” Oprah Winfrey told her viewers as she announced Fall on Your Knees as her February 2002 Book Club selection. Set largely in a Cape Breton coal mining community called New Waterford, ranging through four generations, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s dark, insightful and hilarious first novel focuses on the Piper sisters and their troubled relationship with their father, James. Winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, it was a national bestseller in Canada for two years, and it has been translated into 17 languages.

At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets fire to his dead mother’s piano and heads out across Cape Breton Island to find a new place to live, eventually eloping with 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud, the daughter of wealthy, traditional Lebanese parents. And so, from early on, Ann-Marie MacDonald establishes some major themes: racial tension, isolation, passion and forbidden love, which will gradually lead to incest, death in childbirth, and even murder. At the centre of this epic story is the nature of family love, beginning with the Piper sister who depend on one another for survival. Their development as characters — beautiful Kathleen, the promising diva; saintly Mercedes; Frances, the mischievous bad girl, who tries to bear the family’s burden; and disabled Lily, everyone’s favourite — forms the heart of the novel. And then there is James, their flawed father.

Moving from Cape Breton Island to the battlefields of World War I, to Harlem in New York’s Jazz Age and the Depression, the tense and enthralling plot of Fall on Your Knees contains love, pain, death, joy, and triumph. The structure of the narrative is multi-faceted, richly layered, and shifts back and forth through time as it approaches the story from different angles, “giving it a mythic quality that allows dark, half buried secrets to be gracefully and chillingly revealed” (The New York Times Book Review). As the details of the labyrinthine plot are pulled together, the question of whether it is possible to escape one’s family history gradually raises itself.

The book’s epigraph, taken from Wuthering Heights, seems appropriate to a novel concerned with the different, often violent, forms that love can take. On the inexorable journey towards tragedy we encounter dark yet vivid images of neglect and violence, yet the novel radiates an unquenchable life-force, and yet the novel radiates an unquenchable life-force, shimmering with emotional depth, sensual with virtuoso descriptions of the power of music. It is a saga haunted by ghosts and saints, religious fanaticism and magic. MacDonald gives the most ordinary lives extraordinarily dramatic dimensions.

The Sunday Times wrote, "It is the unpredictability of this huge book that is its greatest joy." With allusions ranging from Hollywood stars to religious tracts, Fall on Your Knees simmers with vibrancy and crackling, effervescent, breathtaking language.(less)

Paperback, 576 pages

Published August 26th 1997 by Vintage Canada (first published May 14th 1996)

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Sep 23, 2007 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, girls-girls-girls

Stupid people read books because Oprah says so. Other stupid people won't read a book just because Oprah picked it to be part of her club. The second group of stupid people think they are very smart though, and they are usually pretentious windbags who say very stupid shit but with big words that people are supposed to be impressed with. The people in the second group will never read this awesome book, and I don't feel sorry for them because they don't deserve it.
(A note: Of the second group th...more

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Nov 21, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Oprah Book Club, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2010)

Shelves: family-drama, war, drama, first-novel, oprah, 1001-core

For 15 years (1996-2010), Oprah Winfrey picked books for her book club. Out of the 69 titles that she chose only 13 (19%) have appeared in at least any of the three (2006, 2008, 2010) editions of Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die:

4 by TONI MORRISON (Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula and Song of Solomon)

2 by CHARLES DICKENS (A Tale of the Two Cities and Great Expectations)

2 by GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ (One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera)

1 each by LEO TOLSTOY

...more

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May 01, 2012 jo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian, mama-is-crazy, queer, disability

there are 17,636 ratings and 1,500 reviews of this book. if you want to see them all you have to scroll through eight hundred sixteen pages. i just noticed because i wanted to see if anyone else found this novel picaresque. no one did in the first three pages. if someone could search the other 813 and report to me, i'd be grateful.

so, i found this novel picaresque, or at least somewhat picaresque. it seems clearly picaresque to me when frances is in the narrative. i don't have a tremendous pass...more there are 17,636 ratings and 1,500 reviews of this book. if you want to see them all you have to scroll through eight hundred sixteen pages. i just noticed because i wanted to see if anyone else found this novel picaresque. no one did in the first three pages. if someone could search the other 813 and report to me, i'd be grateful.

so, i found this novel picaresque, or at least somewhat picaresque. it seems clearly picaresque to me when frances is in the narrative. i don't have a tremendous passion for the picaresque and the rocambolesque. i like my stories neat and real and possibly tidy. this is sprawling and untidy, even though almost all the strands are tied at the end. (view spoiler)

it is also an extraordinarily quirky and strange novel, though i've seen reviewers say that it is a straight and ordinary read. this is my explanation: canadian literature is invariably quirky, but if you are canadian you won't notice it. that's how we know which reviewers are canadians.

it took me two weeks to read this. it's a long time. frances' adventures, while fascinating and absolutely crazy, didn't draw me in enough to pull long reading stretches and i think that overall the novel might have gained from being shorter and on fewer tracks.

but i'm quibbling. this story belongs to mercedes, frances, and lily. materia is sacrificed at the altar of the multi-generational format, which is a shame because her madness is so, so interesting. women stay alive by going mad. it happens in books over and over. it happens in life. we stay alive by going mad.

but the story belongs to the three sisters and this is an exceptional sister story. this is what it shows: that sisterhood (the familial kind) is tremendously powerful but also a force so strong that it must be reined in gently and firmly, and never allowed to get out of control. sisterhood can keep you sane and happy and make you feel deeply loved in the midst of terrible mayhem -- and kill you the next moment. i speak as someone who has three sisters. sisters who have survived three or four world wars together may not be able to remain good to each other. when their love turns poisonous, they can choose to stay and be poisoned, or leave. there is an extraordinary act of love toward the end. it concerns frances and lily. watch for it.

i don't know what it is with the violence of fathers. i wish i knew.

this book is listed here on goodreads in many lesbian lists. if you are reading it for the lesbian story you'll have to wait a good long time, because it takes place at the very end. if it had been stuck in the middle, fewer people might have remembered it and thus bothered to classify this book as a lesbian book. there is a queer undertone under all of it, though, and the lesbian story is extremely beautiful. still, i would not consider this a lesbian book.

i think i may be done with anne-marie macdonald. i have spent two weeks with her and her mind has blown mine, but i don't feel a great need to spend another 800 pages in her company (she has written only two novels). i may, however, read her plays.

lily piper may be one of the most fabulous literary creations of all time.
(less)

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Emilie i think there are different reasons different artists represent this kind of violence and i think there are some who are doing this as a way to exorci...more i think there are different reasons different artists represent this kind of violence and i think there are some who are doing this as a way to exorcise demons, and a way to create and sustain a genuine dialogue about all kinds of violence and oppression with the desire to create change and give hope to people being abused.

at the same time, i think that there's a lot of representations of violence in american culture that are more about a kind of co-opting of that kind of motive. that are representations of violence that act as a way of silencing a subject by normalising it, by making it seem like it's being talked about and making it seem like the conversation is about i don't know, awareness and justice and helping and changing, when really it's more shifting it to make it just part of the background, something that you get used to, something you think and feel about less instead of more. something you are desensitised to. it's a brilliant way to make abusive relationships seem like not a big deal. i think it's a way to end the dialogue, not to engage with it. i think it's the opposite of trying to tackle the problems head on, while creating the appearance that we are tackling the problems head on.

especially in visual media, the representation of violence and the way people are so quick to label it which feels like a way to not engage with it, i mean, when everyone can say the phrase domestic violence it is not the same as feeling what that means. people get to be knowing and bored and distant about it, without feeling concerned, scared, or sad so i think it's a way to avoid the feelings americans are so afraid of. i think it's become a way to silence it, and also, it feels like it's a way to try and make it seem not like what it is, for example to make it seem exciting. there's (from my perspective) a component in this representation that is sexual.

i don't think amercians are representing this kind of violence as a way to deal with it, but as a way to avoid it.

one last thought is the way that, i think, amercians don't engage with veterans and that we are war, and the connections between different kinds of violence. as long as we think johnny got beat up by his dad and jane got beat up and sexually abused by her dad and oh, that's pretty normal, i mean that happens all the time, whatever, right... then war makes a lot more sense, right? i mean, violence against our enemies, well, how bad can that be when we are doing the same to ourselves, to our children.(less)
May 02, 2012 09:59am

jo thanks for the super interesting comments. i don't know whether domestic violence is greater in any country than in any other country. i feel i should...more thanks for the super interesting comments. i don't know whether domestic violence is greater in any country than in any other country. i feel i should know but i don't. there must be comparative studies.

but it's a fact that we represent it hugely. unfortunately my knowledge of other-language literatures is extremely limited, and i know italian literature fairly well up to the 80s, which is precisely, as jen points out, when all this stuff started coming to the surface.

italian literature and cinema were then very concerned with social themes, something that jen points out north american culture does less. i find that it is somewhat difficult here to get people to think in large structural terms, and to see social phenomena as part of large historical events with myriad ramifications. we tend to think small. we tend to apportion blame quickly. we are not informed by great structural thinkers like marx and marxist philosophers. unfortunately.

i find very interesting what you say about canadians, jen. again, haven't read enough, but there is a sort of madness to canadian films and literature (Léolo, C.R.A.Z.Y., and Marion Bridge -- all films -- come to mind just off the top of my head) that bears out what you say.

i could not agree more with what you say, emilie. i think some literature and some cinema works really well with domestic violence (this book would be a fabulous example, for so many reasons which i'll be happy to elaborate), but some other literature and cinema -- most of it -- simply plays with it, often to mock outrage and real titillation. which infuriates me no end. hence my decision to stop reading Laura Lippman, among other authors. and one rape scene is enough for me to ditch a movie immediately. we know what rape looks like. we don't need to see it depicted in vivid colors, thank you very much.

at the same time, the fantasies to which we incessantly return and which titillates us most say a lot about the nightmares that torture us, don't they? this "normalization" you talk about, while entirely and totally and infuriatingly there, also operates as a collective appeasement, a cultural self-soothing, an attempt to make the horror less horrific.

i think america has a tremendous violence problem. i think we may be the most violent country on earth. those of us (americans) who don't spend time abroad simply don't realize how much easier life is in most other countries -- more relaxed, less scary, less daring, less on the edge.

this theme has fascinated me from the day i stepped off the plane and i could talk about it all day every day.(less)
updated May 02, 2012 04:33pm

Jul 13, 2009 Liberty rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Liberty by: Novel Ladies 5 Star Nomination

OMG, I hated this book. It was painful to read. I spent a good 3 hours trying to read this book and ended up skimming the rest of it so I could be done with it.
MacDonald covers just about every topic in her book: racial tension, isolation, domestic abuse, and forbidden love, which leads to incest, death, and even murder, but does it in a very complicated way that will turn many readers away.
I consider myself a strong reader-one who has fantastic reading comprehension but this book tests even t...more

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Jul 01, 2008 Aerin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: litrachur

It surprised me how much I ended up liking this book by the time I finished it. It was another book that a friend lent me with high recommendation but which I had no real interest in reading. This happens to me a lot. I need to get better at saying, "Thanks for the offer, my dear friend, but that book you love and adore so much looks terrible and I'd rather die than read it." But in this case, at least, I'm glad I kept an open mind.

For the first four hundred or so pages, I couldn't figure out wh...more

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Oct 14, 2008 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book reminded me of a grown-up VC Andrews, except you can read it on the subway without feeling like a pervy 12 year-old. Very Gothic at times and the crazy family drama had me reading non-stop, despite all the main characters being unlikeable assholes in one way or another. One thing that bugged me was that some of the writing didn't seem historically accurate. Did people in the 1920s really say "barf?" Maybe they did, I don't know. Regardless, I couldn't put this down and I blew through i...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian-author, fiction, reviewed-books

A novel I remember reading, and having a difficult time to put down. And didn't, very often, despite the 500-plus pages...

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Dec 19, 2007 EJ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

MacDonald( the Canadian actress and playwrite)has truely shown the depth and beauty of her talent in her debut novel, Fall on Your Knees. Her words flow with ease, allowing the story to unfold as though real and not on a page. The historical detail, layers of generations and depth of the characters draw you in as you live their lives with them.

Fall on Your Knees is a story of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It is centered around four sisters and their relationships with each other and wi...more

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 17, 2008 Debbie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 30, 2008 Melissa Madrid rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I discovered Ann-Marie MacDonald by accident, when I bought The Way the Crow Flies in a used bookstore during a biblioemergency. She hooked me instantly with her ability to get inside childhood, and her searingly real portraits of life in the 1960s, with the bonus of superb storytelling acumen and writing that is a pleasure to read. I read Fall on Your Knee second and had that wonderful enjoyment of a second shot of a writer who you liked so much the first time you didn't think you could have th...more

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May 07, 2013 Leanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

Where do I even start with this one? This is heavy, heavy stuff, full to the brim with family secrets. And some of these are some pretty hardcore secrets. When asked by a co-worker what I was reading lately, I barely knew what to say - "Well, this book about a family, and their gross father, and there's a lot of incest..." But while there is definitely a very strong undercurrent of incesty feelings and behavior running through the entire novel, there is much more to it.

It's hard to give a high l...more Where do I even start with this one? This is heavy, heavy stuff, full to the brim with family secrets. And some of these are some pretty hardcore secrets. When asked by a co-worker what I was reading lately, I barely knew what to say - "Well, this book about a family, and their gross father, and there's a lot of incest..." But while there is definitely a very strong undercurrent of incesty feelings and behavior running through the entire novel, there is much more to it.

It's hard to give a high level summary of the plot without diving into all of the intricacies. Basically, it's a family saga about 4 sisters and their father living in Cape Breton that spans maybe 30-40 years (I'm too lazy to officially work out the timeline in my head!) There are several main events that you learn about slowly, by jumping back and forth in time until all of the mysteries are finally revealed. This storytelling device works well here - it never feels disjointed, and makes it more exciting (as well as, admittedly, icky).

None of the (main) characters are particularly likeable. They all have some redeeming qualities - Frances is bright and vivacious and fun before her rebellious behavior just becomes over the top, Mercedes really is just trying to take care of her family, even as she comes off as overly pious and condescending, and Lily is altogether innocent, but she does certain things that make you want to strangle her. Even Materia, who is for the most part a victim forced into a strange and vaguely sadistic marriage at the age of 12, didn't elicit full sympathy from me. Often, not connecting with any of the characters on a personal level ruins a book for me, but in this case I was completely fascinated. Having had a very normal childhood with very normal parents and a sister, reading about a family like this was compelling and satisfyingly twisted.

To me, this book was dark and sad, but there was a beautiful quality to it too. It wasn't necessarily the best time for me to read it, as the weather is finally becoming sunny and gorgeous - I feel this type of sordid book is more suited for the dark depths of winter. The prose is hazy and wistful and sad, and it's just such a good story. I'm sorry that it took me so long to become aware of this book and to pick it up, and at 584 pages it was an effort, but it was well, well worth it.(less)

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Mar 26, 2011 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-favorites, owned

An amazingly harsh view of the hardships of life.

This book is most definitely my favorite of all time. It is absolutely amazing. It's scandelous, it's real, it's intriguing, it's just plain -good-! MacDonald's writing style creates an interactive world that pulls you in to first person view of the characters' lives.

The story follows the Piper family, a unique little set up of father and four daughters. Mr. Piper's wife has passed, leaving him to fend for himself in a home bursting to the seams...more

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Nov 12, 2007 tamarack rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: annie proulx fans

ignore that glowering “oprah's book club” logo on the front of this and just walk up to the counter and check it out of your local library. it's a hefty little paperback, but you'll read it in no time - so long as you're into multi-generational novels with a dark streak reminiscent of something like annie proulx. it's beautifully written and only a shame that the aforementioned mascot of satan has put her name to it. Fall On Your Knees is macdonald's first published work, which makes it ten time...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Betsy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This had a lot of wonderful thoughts, but I got bogged down and don't think I'll finish it. I liked the characters and the "mystery" but honestly, it was too long. I may scan the rest. I need to move on. If it takes me 2 weeks to finish something, something is wrong.

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Apr 25, 2007 salt rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I kept picking it up and putting it down in frustration. I know so many people loved it, but when I saw it come up on Oprah's book list I just wanted to die. So much was happening, but being written about in the most boring way possible. It didn't hold my interest, which is rare since as a Canadian I was brought up on the typical Canadian novel diet. It amazes me how so many Canadian writers can write books where lots of big important things happen, yet do it in a way that just makes them so b.o...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Changed my life. I saw the world differently after this book

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Jan 04, 2010 Karen Powell added it · review of another edition

MacDonald's novel is intense, gothic, and at times overwhelming in the telling of the lives of the Piper family in the early twentieth century, whose secrets shape the lives of the children in various ways. James sets trouble in motion when he eloped with 13-year-old Materia to the disgust of her family, but soon becomes disgusted with her himself for her childishness and Lebanese heritage. His only consolation is their stunning firstborn Kathleen, with the beauty and operatic voice of an angel....more MacDonald's novel is intense, gothic, and at times overwhelming in the telling of the lives of the Piper family in the early twentieth century, whose secrets shape the lives of the children in various ways. James sets trouble in motion when he eloped with 13-year-old Materia to the disgust of her family, but soon becomes disgusted with her himself for her childishness and Lebanese heritage. His only consolation is their stunning firstborn Kathleen, with the beauty and operatic voice of an angel. When his love for her threatens to consume him to the point of incest, he takes drastic measures to distract himself, such as enlisting in Word War I, and fathering more children with Materia. The surviving children, Mercedes and Frances, grow up to be different as night and day, but they cling to each other for support throughout their parents' dysfunctional, and often abusive, marriage. As the two grow into adulthood, secrets from their past threaten them from the shadows, devastating mistakes from childhood haunt them in disjointed pieces, and one sister dies as another takes her place. This new sister, Lily, becomes the catalyst through which the surviving Pipers attempt to redeem themselves. The enduring mystery is left hanging over the family until the end: What exactly happened to Kathleen during her trip to NYC while training to become a famous singer that caused her to return ruined, pregnant, and silent?[return][return]The novel is lengthy, but engrossing enough to keep the reader pushing onward. Each character alternates between sympathetic and unsympathetic, hovering between forgiveness and unforgivable. This aura of purgatory fits in well with the theme of Catholicism and its associated subthemes,sin, baptism, and redemption. This is aided by the perspective changing from character to character without notice; the reader slips in and out of every character's mind in a godlike way.[return][return]The story takes bizarre turns, and sometimes the reader is left to wonder if certain events really happened, or if they are not being remembered correctly by the characters. Their motives are not always explained, but left to a sort of mysticism as an explanation. This is never more apparent than with the character of Frances, whose devastating mission she feels is for Lily's benefit threatens to tear everyone apart, but somehow becomes redeemed through it. I fear that MacDonald left a lot to be explained after the crescendo of the climax. [return][return]On the whole, the novel flows with descriptive prose that is very dreamlike. This was effective in all parts except in the few action sequences, which made it difficult to discern time and concrete fact. (Think the shaky-camera effect in films.) I had to go back and reread a few passages to get a firmer idea on what was going on. But the dreamy quality is what makes the novel work, and why some of its most harrowing content can be endured. Like the characters, we tell ourselves that the worst of it is a dream, move on, keep moving on, and hope it doesn't haunt us, like it haunts the Pipers.(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Nicolette Hines rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book! Even though there were many sad parts, there were happy times too. I think it rang a true chord with me, regarding human nature. We are not perfect creatures and people were far from perfecct in this book. Even though James did wrong by his daughter, I felt for him. I think he was trapped in his own hell.

The folowing is copied from Oprah.com and sums it up:

Following the curves of history during the first half of the twentieth century, Fall on Your Knees takes us from haunted C...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Carissa Rogers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was in a super geeky frame of mind when I read this book in early spring of 2012. I had been reading books about metaphors (see I told you... geeky). And as fate would have it I picked up this book suggested probably via the stream of books suggested on Amazon after you look at a book title there—right after my nerdy metaphor phase.

I literally started writing down metaphors I came across in the prose of this book... AMAZING. Beautiful. I'm not talking about similes or simple comparisons peopl...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Hilary G rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
I found this an absorbing book. Once I started to read it, I didn't want to stop until everything was explained. Perhaps I'm just dense but I didn't realise until it was obvious that James was the father of Kathleen's babies nor that Frances's behaviour was the result of abuse. I think Ann-Marie MacDonald cleverly revealed the secrets piece-meal like pulling the petals off a tulip (from a certain angle the tulip still looked like a tulip until the last petal was gone).

This was a VERY dysfunction...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The best part of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees are the scenes that describe Kathleen as a happy child. These are the scenes when it is possible to imagine there might be something good in the world, even if that good thing has red hair. But that possibility is soon quashed and the remainder of the novel gave me nightmares. Actual wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night nightmares about water ghosts and red haired demon children and the rosary.

The book asks us what it means to be a “good” p...more

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May 11, 2012 Nicky Dierx rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book because my partner and I have an agreement. We both love wildly different styles of books, so we each choose one of our favourites and make the other person read it. This was her choice (I made her read A game of thrones in case you're wondering).

I hated this book for it's subject matter and content. The damn thing ended just when it started getting interesting and glossed over anything that was actually worth finding out more about. (roughly the last third was fantastic, but sh...more

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May 05, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: popular-fiction

This book sat on my shelf for years; the story looked interesting, but epic novels are not generally my cup of tea. I was laying in bed ill, and decided that if I was going to dive into this book, this was the time. I am so glad I did. These characters frame a fascinating and historically edifying (at least for me) tale. I have gotten so used to reading novels where the story serves to illuminate a character study that I had forgotten how brilliant a tale can be where the characters exist to ser...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kimberly by: no one

Shelves: favorites

This book is one of those books that you either love it or hate it. I loved it. In fact its one of my favorite books of all time. Its dark and deep but beautiful. The book is actually based in the town I grew up in so it was interesting to read about the town I grew up in only during the setting of the book. It was wonderful to read about the church I grew up in, my grandmothers church and later, the church I married my husband in. The book being set in Cape Breton was what grabbed my attention...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Debra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished this book, and while I really liked reading it, it's overall "darkness" was enough to leave me feeling somewhat down...and even that isn't the right word. I feel a little numb, a little dull, a little tired, a little contemplative. The story revolves around the Piper family, and what a family they are.
It's a mostly sad book, and I'm left mentally reviewing sections of the book in my mind, trying to figure out how things could have worked out differently. That being said, if this...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I almost gave it 5 stars, it is an amazing tour de force type of book. I do not even know where to begin. I guess I will start with this: I took it with me to jury duty on Tue and I didn't even notice the passing of the first three hours of my service (9-12 am) when I was not called to serve on a jury. This book draws you right in and you cannot leave its hypnotic grasp. In many ways it is reminiscent of A Thousand Acres and thus indirecly of King Lear, but it is so much more. It covers adult me...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a bit torn on this one. I would like to give it 3.5 stars rather than just 3.

As many reviewers have mentioned it was intriuging and disturbing at the same time. It is a little surprising to me that this was a pick for the Oprah book club.

The characters are so well developed and I definately felt for their plights by the end of the story. The story itself is complicated, layered and fairly distrubing. There are twists and turns, emotional ups and downs, good and bad all rolled into one stor...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Becky rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book left me wanting to slash my wrists-- especially when I think about the time I spent reading it that I can never get back.

Many people loved this book. I am not one of them. The characters are shallow,self-involved and just plain crazy and while I realize that this is just like the people you meet in your everyday I life, it doesn't necessarily mean I want to read about them unless they are delivered in a well-written story that makes them shine a little. This is not that kind of story....more

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Apr 08, 2011 Carrie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is another book club read where I find myself not sympathizing with any of the characters, but am still compelled to read out of sheer curiosity. The story revolves around the Piper family. The start of the parent's relationship is the beginning of the disastrous relationships the entire family would continue. The parents elope when James is in his twenties and Materia is only 13. Materia is immediately disowned by her family, and James quickly regrets marrying a child. They have a child, K...more This is another book club read where I find myself not sympathizing with any of the characters, but am still compelled to read out of sheer curiosity. The story revolves around the Piper family. The start of the parent's relationship is the beginning of the disastrous relationships the entire family would continue. The parents elope when James is in his twenties and Materia is only 13. Materia is immediately disowned by her family, and James quickly regrets marrying a child. They have a child, Kathleen, who James dotes on and as she grows older, finds himself unnaturally attracted to. James doesn't give into his attraction, and instead enlists in World War I, hoping to become a casualty of war and put an end to his suffering. James survives though, and instead tries to repair his relationship with his wife, leading to the birth of two more girls, Mercedes and Frances. Materia, a devote Catholic, shifts between moments of coherence and incoherence, but always leans on her faith for help with her situation. Whether from her youth, a mental illness, or post-partum, she is never a stable wife and mother. Mercedes and Frances suffer as a result of being left alone with their mother for so long with little influence from a stable parent. Kathleen is a natural beauty from birth and a gifted singer. Her family eventually sends her to New York to be classically trained. However, the big city proves to much and she is brought home, mute and with child. Within three days of Kathleen giving birth, there have been three deaths and two baptisms, and the family left behind is changed forever. Mercedes adopts her mother's devote beliefs in Catholicisms and tries to take care of the family and protect her sisters. Frances, who takes the brunt of her father's abuse, eventually turns the tables on her father and becomes a risque performer in a speakeasy. And a new daughter, Lily, who suffered from the after effects of Polio, becomes the center of James' love and devotion. Eventually the entire family falls apart and only one escapes with a chance at a normal life.

The book is told in non-sequential order, so events may be told in one chapter but explained much later. At first it was confusing and a bit irritating, but by the end it turns out to be the best way for the mystery unfold. The story is told from many viewpoints and also from snippets of letters and diaries. At just over 500 pages, the story does drag here and there, but for the most part you find yourself wanting to keep reading.

There were moments of the book that were quite shocking, and lots of moments where it hinted at something terrifying, but leaving the details of the horror to your imagination. Outside of maybe five people, almost every character in this story is seedy, underhanded, cruel, or violent. It makes you wish the worst for most of the characters, and most do come to bad ends.(less)

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Feb 04, 2011 Elsje rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2007

Op de valreep van het nieuwe jaar nog 'Laten wij aanbidden' van Ann-Marie MacDonald uitgelezen. Lag ook al jaren op mijn MTBR. Altijd tegenop gezien, door het hoge hypegehalte toen het uitkwam. Maar ja, toen een vriendin bijna jaloersig opmerkte, toen ze in mijn MTBR rommelde: 'Heb jij dat nog tegoed? O!!!', tja, toen kon ik niet anders dan er acuut aan beginnen.

Het is een zeer meeslepend geschreven familiegeschiedenis. De jonge James die verliefd wordt op de zeer jonge Materia (13 jaar) en haar...more

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About Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany.

MacDonald won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for her first novel, Fall on Your Knees, which was also named to Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.

She received the Governor General'...more

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Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

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“Memory plays tricks. Memory is another word for story, and nothing is more unreliable.” — 25 people liked it

“She's no lady. Her songs are all unbelievably unhappy or lewd. It's called Blues. She sings about sore feet, sexual relations, baked goods, killing your lover, being broke, men called Daddy, women who dress like men, working, praying for rain. Jail and trains. Whiskey and morphine. She tells stories between verses and everyone in the place shouts out how true it all is.” — 22 people liked it

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