Another Place at the Table

by Mary Cook

In 1911, a thirteen-year-old Mabel Ernestine Lapointe ran from the heartache of her life in an Ottawa tenement house, and set off on a journey that took her to the giddy heights of New York City. Tragic circumstances forced her return to Canada, to a desolate farm in Renfrew County during the Depression years- a place from which she longed to escape. Another Place at the Table is Mabel's story and the story of the farmer who became her husband, offering the young widow and her two children the only sanctuary they could hope for. This is CBC radio broadcaster, author and storyteller Mary Cook's tribute to the remarkable woman who was her mother.

148 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jim Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having led an itinerant existence almost since birth, I moved to the Eastern parts of Ontario fifty years ago and seem to have finally put down roots. There’s something about the region casually referred to as the Ottawa Valley, and its bordering counties leaning toward the border with Quebec, that invites a person to stick around, seek to belong, embrace the stories and songs and traditions that permeate this landscape. Many of the people I associate with here (even including some who, like me, hie from elsewhere) come to see themselves as “Valley people.” Hence, I find myself seeking out artifacts and stories set among these old rocks and lakes and rivers and towns, and about some of the characters who have emerged from this special place. Recently, that has led me to such diverse works as a small-town murder mystery, a bio of a small-town magnate named O’Brien, and several of the books of Mary Cook, whose stories about growing up in Renfrew County became so well known through her many years with the CBC.
This book is essentially a freely adapted bio of Mary Cook’s mother Mabel Ernestine Haneman née Lapointe, who, although born in Ottawa and having spent much of her youth in NYC, lived out the remainder of her days in “the Valley.” So, like the rest of us, she seems to have found her way home.
Like all of Mary Cook’s works, this if very much about life in marginal farming country. On the one hand, it’s an environment that is especially hard on women, grinding them down through ceaseless labor, “making do” and “doing without,” while at the same time forging a powerful bond with an unforgiving land. By some inexplicable process, the hardship such land imposes on its inhabitants tends to capture both their body and their soul. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon in the stories of Appalachia by writers such as Wayne Caldwell and Wendell Berry.
Unlike Cook’s lighthearted story collections such as Bubble Off Plumb: and Other Audience Favourites: And Other Audience Favourites, this one has more than its share of heartbreak and the grim realities of a hardscrabble existence. And do not look for fine prose from Mary Cook. But it seems to me that her blandness of style somehow renders her stories all the more convincing.

[Meg · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a reading challenge that was hosted by my local library. I had high hopes for this book and was excited to learn more about the past in Renfrew County.

I will begin by saying that I did find the local history enjoyable and the photographs of the Haneman family to be heart warming, but overall, I feel like this story was lacking on many levels.

I know the author is a renowned story teller and journalist throughout Renfrew County, but her pen to paper writing is bland and hard to relate to.

As someone who didn't grow up during the Depression, I would have liked it if this story had had more nitty gritty details of what it was really like to raise five children on a farm with barely any food or money. It must have been exhausting and overwhelming, but this wasn't conveyed in the book.

What was it like to care for children who weren't yours...was it really just as simple as adding another place at the table, or was there resentment between the biological children and the child you took in and fed and clothed when you couldn't afford to do so? Did you ever feel any sort of love towards the farmer who took you in, or did your marriage always remain as passionless as you let it seem? So many things were not addressed in this book, or if they were, they were just quickly glossed over.

Too bad...this could have been a really good story.

[Beatrice Moffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book although I felt bad for Mabel and Albert at different times. I have read some of her other books and this answered a lot of my questions.

[Karen Rowsome · Rating 5 out of 5]

a short read - local writer local story based on real life. i enjoyed because i remember stories from my mom and country life - not for everyone

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and compelling story but I didn't like how it skips ahead so much every few chapters and the ending felt really abrupt and unsettled. But having said all that I read it straight through and was really engrossed in her life - just wish a few more details were given.