Songs my mother taught me

by Audrey Thomas

Republished with a new introduction, Audrey Thomas' classic coming-of-age novel about madness, loneliness, despair and escape.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Audrey Grace Thomas, née Callahan, novelist and short story writer (b at Binghamton, NY 17 Nov 1935). Audrey Thomas was educated at Smith College, Mass, and St Andrews University, Scotland, and then taught in England for a year. In 1959 she moved to Canada and in 1963 earned an MA at the University of British Columbia. From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, but eventually settled on Galiano Island. She has published more than 15 novels and short story collections, more than 20 radio plays, several broadcast on CBC Radio, and numerous travel articles, some of which featured in Air Canada's in-flight magazine.

Thomas' writing has been described as feminine; her forte is the minutiae of women's lives, and she has claimed to strive "to demonstrate the terrible gap between men and women" and "to give women a sense of their bodies." Her style is characterized by word play; she emphasizes puns, etymologies, euphemisms, words within words, and pointing to the inherent possibilities, ironies and ambiguities of language. This close attention to language highlights the act of writing itself, and the possibilities and impossibilities of communication in human relationships. Her writing is also rich with literary allusion, from Shakespeare to Conrad, and from the Bible to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Audrey Thomas is a multi-award winning author. She has been recognized provincially, winning the Ethel Wilson Prize three times (for Intertidal Life, 1985, Wild Blue Yonder, 1991 and Coming Down from Wa, 1996). She has twice been nominated for the Governor General's Award (1984 and 1985), and has been internationally recognized with the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary fellowship (1984-6) and the Canada-Australia Literary Prize (1989). In 1987 she won the Marian Engel Award, awarded annually to a female Canadian author for her contribution to Canadian literature. In 2003 Audrey Thomas won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award.

(from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.co...)

Reviews

[Paltia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are you interested in the modern - 20 th century - treatment of those labeled mentally ill? If so, this is an okay read. Ms. Thomas does a decent job of describing the state hospital wards prior to de institutionalization. The heroine in the story, at first petrified and horrified by what she experiences when she takes a summer job, ends up growing accustomed to the “mad” behavior and comes to find it more honest than the words and actions of her family who still cling to the illusion of being sane. It reads like an autobiography with many dull moments and a few sparkling insights. It was a fast read. I wouldn’t pass it on to a friend.

[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

1950s America. A wee bit depressing but I like those kind of books.

[Sandra Yuen (MacKay) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is set in the forties and fifties, exploring the childhood, upbringing, and coming of age of Isobel Cleary. At that time, sexuality was something to be hidden, not openly discussed. When she gets a job at State Hospital Hill, which houses the insane, she works on the 'shit ward', where the smell and sight of excrement are overwhelming. I disliked the portrayal of the mad patients and the state of their accommodation, however, during that time, it may very well have been like that. Also, there is a scene where someone is trying to draw a pint of blood, but blood ends up splattered all over the room and the people. Again, the depiction wasn't something I was drawn to. For me, as a person with mental illness, I felt dismay at the way madness was shown in this novel which adds to stigma.

When Isobel has sex for the first time, she is doped up on pills and she remarks that she isn't concerned about syphilis or pregnancy, perhaps symbolizing a sense of freedom.

Despite any reservations I may have about this book, Thomas is an award-winning author who also received the Order of Canada.