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The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending
An adventurous novel of nine generations of women who share the middle name of Claire. Meet Amelia Claire Earl in 2011 as she sets out to sail the world in her air balloon; move backward in time and meet her mother, Liz, in 1980, two months pregnant and fighting-off ghosts; onto 1958 where Dorothy (Liz’s mother) chases down a snowy owl; and so forth through the generations to end in 1826 as the first of the Claries sails over to conquer the ‘new world’. Expect love, witchcraft, mother-in-laws, moonshine, pregnancy, spitting contests, defiance, cannon shooting, small towns and HUGE Heaps of courage!
- GenresFiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2013
587 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Brunelle
6 books24 followersCatherine Brunelle is a Canadian writer and blogger who, following the fantastic success of her crowdfunding campaign, is launching The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending into the world. This is Catherine’s first novel. She studied creative writing at the University of Southampton, and is an active voice in the online community with her blog, Bumpyboobs. You can read more of her work at www.CatherineBrunelle.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 26, 2015
I'm totally biased since this is my book. However, it must speak well to have just spent the last 1.5 years reading, re-reading, editing, proofing, reading, reading again, and then again, and STILL love it. Therefore, I give my novel (a totally biased) five stars.
March 6, 2021
I am so glad I read this book! I happened upon this book when trying to complete a reading challenge that called for “a local author”. Being from Ottawa, I really wanted to find and support as local as possible. This book was so much fun but still had serious plots and themes at times. I loved that each chapter read like it’s own short story, and since it goes in descending chronological order, you get hints about the next story that is to come. I love the themes of motherhood, independence, and womanhood, as well as how it tackled Canadian issues from history. In my opinion, the chapters got better and better as they went (but I could be biased because historical fiction is my favourite genre!). I implore my fellow friends and especially fellow Canadians to read this book!
May 22, 2014
I loved this book. The backwards in time trajectory worked really and I savoured every moment of each of these stories. Highly recommend this book!
February 20, 2014
Despite having a master’s degree in English literature, I’m forced to admit I spent most of University doing everything I could to avoid reading Canadian literature. I grew up a punk rock kid, highly suspicious of anything remotely patriotic; it all smacked of mindless jingoism to my adolescent mind. Besides, why read Stephen Leacock when you could read William Shakespeare? Why read Susanne Moodie when you could read Virginia Woolf?
It was only as I grew older, bought a home in the nation’s capital, settled down, and had children, that I began reassessing concepts like “patriotism” and “nationhood”. The older you get, the smaller your world becomes, and the value of things like fraternity and community suddenly become much clearer, not to mention more nuanced.
I now see reading Canadian literature as a valuable opportunity to investigate who I am, what it means to be a Canadian citizen, and where the customs and traditions of the community I live in came from in the first place.
Which brings us to The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending by Catherine Brunelle. While the book’s cover suggests whimsical and light chick-lit, the novel is, in fact, a startling complex work of pure Canadiana. Yes, there are moments of whimsy, and its narrative certainly focuses on women’s issues, but it is with a depth of complexity and breadth of scope that pushes the novel far beyond a “light read”, allowing Brunelle to follow in the tradition of Canada’s best and most respected literary authors.
From a formal perspective, Clair Never-Ending is shockingly ambitious for a debut novel. Eschewing a traditional chronological unravelling of story, Brunelle chronicles nine generations of women, all with the middle name Claire, in largely self-contained short-stories that move backwards in time, one generation for every chapter. Each of the women is pregnant, and, as the narrative progresses chronologically backwards into the past, it moves one month forward in the pregnancy – meaning the opening story features Amelia Claire discovering she is pregnant, and the final story features the birth of her great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother. This innovative format creates fascinating opportunities for foreshadowing and juxtaposition of characters, given the reader knows that the mother figure of any given story will be the young and pregnant protagonist of the following chapter.
The book opens with a handful of stories set in the claustrophobic urban centres of modern Canada, but as the narrative unravels and the reader moves deeper into the history of our nation, the story expands outwards from urban spaces to rural communities, farm lands, and the vast open and untamed landscapes of Canada’s past.
The playful Canadian iconography of frozen lakes, Hudson Bay blankets, and maple syrup all put in appearances, but Brunelle is equally unafraid to tackle Canada’s darker past of exploitation and discrimination towards the country’s original inhabitants, its First Nations peoples. The novel’s focus on women’s issues, particularly the relationship between mothers and daughters, and the complexities of pregnancy and parenthood, is approached in an equally sure-handed manner, one that produces moments of heartache and bliss, but always manages to avoid the melodramatic or histrionic.
As all the best authors do, Brunelle has imbued her art with an element of mysticism. Woven into the novel’s dramatic realism is ongoing theme of folk magic. Ghosts, witches, curses, and spells pop-up with regularity, and while it may be most obvious to approach this element of the novel by connecting it to the larger theme of womanhood (i.e. it is a specifically feminine magic, passed from mother to daughter through time, like a collection of post cards), I prefer to think of the book’s magical elements – a magic that is difficult to pin down, always changing and morphing, never quite what it appears to be – as a final comment on the instability and constantly shifting foundation of what it means to be Canadian.
The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending is one more puzzle piece, and a welcome addition at that, to the never-quite-complete jigsaw puzzle known as the cannon of Canadian literature.
It was only as I grew older, bought a home in the nation’s capital, settled down, and had children, that I began reassessing concepts like “patriotism” and “nationhood”. The older you get, the smaller your world becomes, and the value of things like fraternity and community suddenly become much clearer, not to mention more nuanced.
I now see reading Canadian literature as a valuable opportunity to investigate who I am, what it means to be a Canadian citizen, and where the customs and traditions of the community I live in came from in the first place.
Which brings us to The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending by Catherine Brunelle. While the book’s cover suggests whimsical and light chick-lit, the novel is, in fact, a startling complex work of pure Canadiana. Yes, there are moments of whimsy, and its narrative certainly focuses on women’s issues, but it is with a depth of complexity and breadth of scope that pushes the novel far beyond a “light read”, allowing Brunelle to follow in the tradition of Canada’s best and most respected literary authors.
From a formal perspective, Clair Never-Ending is shockingly ambitious for a debut novel. Eschewing a traditional chronological unravelling of story, Brunelle chronicles nine generations of women, all with the middle name Claire, in largely self-contained short-stories that move backwards in time, one generation for every chapter. Each of the women is pregnant, and, as the narrative progresses chronologically backwards into the past, it moves one month forward in the pregnancy – meaning the opening story features Amelia Claire discovering she is pregnant, and the final story features the birth of her great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother. This innovative format creates fascinating opportunities for foreshadowing and juxtaposition of characters, given the reader knows that the mother figure of any given story will be the young and pregnant protagonist of the following chapter.
The book opens with a handful of stories set in the claustrophobic urban centres of modern Canada, but as the narrative unravels and the reader moves deeper into the history of our nation, the story expands outwards from urban spaces to rural communities, farm lands, and the vast open and untamed landscapes of Canada’s past.
The playful Canadian iconography of frozen lakes, Hudson Bay blankets, and maple syrup all put in appearances, but Brunelle is equally unafraid to tackle Canada’s darker past of exploitation and discrimination towards the country’s original inhabitants, its First Nations peoples. The novel’s focus on women’s issues, particularly the relationship between mothers and daughters, and the complexities of pregnancy and parenthood, is approached in an equally sure-handed manner, one that produces moments of heartache and bliss, but always manages to avoid the melodramatic or histrionic.
As all the best authors do, Brunelle has imbued her art with an element of mysticism. Woven into the novel’s dramatic realism is ongoing theme of folk magic. Ghosts, witches, curses, and spells pop-up with regularity, and while it may be most obvious to approach this element of the novel by connecting it to the larger theme of womanhood (i.e. it is a specifically feminine magic, passed from mother to daughter through time, like a collection of post cards), I prefer to think of the book’s magical elements – a magic that is difficult to pin down, always changing and morphing, never quite what it appears to be – as a final comment on the instability and constantly shifting foundation of what it means to be Canadian.
The Adventures of Claire Never-Ending is one more puzzle piece, and a welcome addition at that, to the never-quite-complete jigsaw puzzle known as the cannon of Canadian literature.
November 21, 2013
This is a magical story. Brunelle takes us quietly through the lives of a family of women, all with the middle name of Claire, going back nine generations from present-day North America, and she tells each Claire's story, going backwards in time, and how the next Claire came to be.
It is thoughtfully written and charming in its characters and each of their different, challenging lives. This tale is a cup of hot chocolate after a quiet walk through a snowy forest, a gentle ancestral hug from the sisterhood of women who welcome you home with open arms.
Through much of the story you'll be nodding your head, thinking to yourself, "Yes, women endure so much; we're stronger than we realize."
You'll need a Kleenex or two to get through this brilliant visit with the women who preceded us in history. Prepare to be moved. I was.
It is thoughtfully written and charming in its characters and each of their different, challenging lives. This tale is a cup of hot chocolate after a quiet walk through a snowy forest, a gentle ancestral hug from the sisterhood of women who welcome you home with open arms.
Through much of the story you'll be nodding your head, thinking to yourself, "Yes, women endure so much; we're stronger than we realize."
You'll need a Kleenex or two to get through this brilliant visit with the women who preceded us in history. Prepare to be moved. I was.
February 2, 2015
This novel was pretty stellar.
It's not my favorite since it goes into a bit of the past (I enjoy more of a present day and time type of setting), but it's up there with one of my top best books.
It's written in such a way that I was drawn in from the very first paragraph and I was hooked. I couldn't put it down once I got momentum.
There were a few parts where I had to hold back the tears, but there were a lot more parts where I was grinning while reading and also thinking, 'this is so true.'
Thank you to the author and goodreads (firstreads) for a copy of the book!
It's not my favorite since it goes into a bit of the past (I enjoy more of a present day and time type of setting), but it's up there with one of my top best books.
It's written in such a way that I was drawn in from the very first paragraph and I was hooked. I couldn't put it down once I got momentum.
There were a few parts where I had to hold back the tears, but there were a lot more parts where I was grinning while reading and also thinking, 'this is so true.'
Thank you to the author and goodreads (firstreads) for a copy of the book!
January 25, 2015
In The Adventures of Claire Never Ending, Catherine Brunelle takes us on a journey back into time where we get to see glimpses into the lives of all the Claires during their pregnancy.
Each woman has a daughter. And each daughter is given the middle name Claire. It is all they have after all, since with marriage the last name will be changed, so this middle name Claire, it is the tie that binds them. Each woman's story is unique and yet, they all fit together to tell the tale that goes back generations.
Through postcards written to each other (daughter to mother, mother to daughter), parts of their story are preserved for the next Claire and the next Claire and the next.
This is a great story that I enjoyed reading. I love how each Claire is more pregnant than the Claire before her, giving the illusion of one pregnancy through the whole book, as if the ripples of each Claire blend into each other, creating one beautiful (if not always pretty) story.
Each woman has a daughter. And each daughter is given the middle name Claire. It is all they have after all, since with marriage the last name will be changed, so this middle name Claire, it is the tie that binds them. Each woman's story is unique and yet, they all fit together to tell the tale that goes back generations.
Through postcards written to each other (daughter to mother, mother to daughter), parts of their story are preserved for the next Claire and the next Claire and the next.
This is a great story that I enjoyed reading. I love how each Claire is more pregnant than the Claire before her, giving the illusion of one pregnancy through the whole book, as if the ripples of each Claire blend into each other, creating one beautiful (if not always pretty) story.
September 4, 2015
This was a really endearing indie published book full of vivid short stories about yearning and adventure that will let your mind play in the clouds, just like Claire.
October 12, 2014
A thoroughly enjoyable read, but for some reason I found it infinitely sad.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews