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Liberty Street: A Novel
A deeply affecting novel about the truths we avoid and the bad choices that come back to haunt us.
Gridlocked in the churchyard of a small Irish town, the traffic frozen in place for a funeral, Frances Moon pauses long enough to make a confession to Ian, her partner of nearly twenty years. The next morning, she finds he has left her. Unsure what else to do, Frances sets out for Elliot, the small town in western Canada where she grew up.
As the perspective shifts backward, cruel students and unsympathetic teachers await a young Frances beyond the borders of her family’s quiet farm. Curious, imaginative, and lost, she finds comfort in two outsiders, the troubled local boy, Dooley Sullivan, and a decorated Native American World War Two veteran named Silas Chance. But ever present, splitting the narrative apart, is a small town that will close ranks, turning a blind eye when one of them is killed.
The crime, itself, and the denial that follows, takes both Silas and Dooley from Frances in different ways. By high school, she’s become the girl most likely to disappoint, and at eighteen is already headed toward a disastrous marriage. Even after she shakes off the dust of the town and flees her husband, even as she builds a new life, she buries her past so deeply that she believes she has lost it. Until one day in an Irish churchyard, it all comes sweeping back. And so begins an unforgettable novel of lost souls and second acts.
From the Hardcover edition.
Gridlocked in the churchyard of a small Irish town, the traffic frozen in place for a funeral, Frances Moon pauses long enough to make a confession to Ian, her partner of nearly twenty years. The next morning, she finds he has left her. Unsure what else to do, Frances sets out for Elliot, the small town in western Canada where she grew up.
As the perspective shifts backward, cruel students and unsympathetic teachers await a young Frances beyond the borders of her family’s quiet farm. Curious, imaginative, and lost, she finds comfort in two outsiders, the troubled local boy, Dooley Sullivan, and a decorated Native American World War Two veteran named Silas Chance. But ever present, splitting the narrative apart, is a small town that will close ranks, turning a blind eye when one of them is killed.
The crime, itself, and the denial that follows, takes both Silas and Dooley from Frances in different ways. By high school, she’s become the girl most likely to disappoint, and at eighteen is already headed toward a disastrous marriage. Even after she shakes off the dust of the town and flees her husband, even as she builds a new life, she buries her past so deeply that she believes she has lost it. Until one day in an Irish churchyard, it all comes sweeping back. And so begins an unforgettable novel of lost souls and second acts.
From the Hardcover edition.
382 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 16, 2016
17 people are currently reading
635 people want to read
About the author
Dianne Warren
26 books51 followersDianne Warren grew up in Saskatchewan and attended the University of Regina where, although she did some coursework with writers such as Joan Givner and Ken Mitchell, she graduated in 1976 with a BFA in Visual Arts. She then spent three years in rural northeastern Saskatchewan and in 1979 returned to Regina, where she lives with her husband, visual artist Bruce Anderson, and their two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
March 20, 2016
I really really liked this book - the story of Frances Moon growing up in small town Saskatchewan. I felt immersed in Frances’ life journey and connected with the many characters in the novel.
June 6, 2016
About six years ago, I read Cool Water, the Governor-General’s award-winning novel by Dianne Warren and I really enjoyed it, so I was excited to learn she had another novel published, Liberty Street. I’m surprised that I had not heard more about this book.
Frances Moon is a middle-aged woman on a holiday with her long-term partner when she blurts out a secret she has kept for decades: “’I lost a baby when I was nineteen. . . . it died. Before that, I was married. But not to the father of the baby. . . . I’m still married now . . . Unless my husband has died . . . (2 – 4). That admission ends the holiday, and Frances finds herself compelled to revisit her hometown of Elliot in northern Saskatchewan where she explores the events and long-repressed memories that have shaped her life. Her relationship with her mother is examined, a difficult relationship considering her mother championed education and Frances had no ambition for continuing studies past high school.
Frances is not a very likeable character. As a young girl, she has no personal ambition; actually, she totally lacks self-knowledge and seems to want to coast through life. Despite warnings from many people, she makes a decision which ends badly. Her choice then is to step out of that life and pretend “It didn’t happen” (238). She makes more poor choices which she regrets and deals with by escaping into another life: “’I became a different person afterward’” (6). Of course, she can’t totally outrun her past as her spontaneous revelation to her partner suggests, and it is only by facing her past that she can move on. She is “nearer sixty than fifty” (4) when she learns to be less self-centred, realizes that she was not the only one to make bad decisions, and decides to be kinder to others?! Talk about arrested emotional development! Unfortunately, I know someone who is just like her so though Frances may be infuriating, she is realistic.
The character development is exceptional. Characters are fully developed and differentiated. Frances’ mother and father are developed so well that the reader can predict their reactions to events. Dooley Sullivan is an interesting secondary character who is given a chapter to himself. This chapter I found disconcerting since no other character is given a section from his/her point of view. The information given could have been incorporated into a conversation between Frances and Dooley when they meet on Liberty Street.
Life in a small town is portrayed very realistically. I did not grow up in rural Saskatchewan, but the attitudes and habits of the townsfolk in Elliot reflect those of the people in my small Ontario hometown.
I’ve always enjoyed books where a character must come to terms with his/her past, and this one is no exception. Frances returns to Liberty Street to get her freedom, but realizes that there is no liberty from one’s past: it makes us who we are and, hopefully, we can learn from it.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Frances Moon is a middle-aged woman on a holiday with her long-term partner when she blurts out a secret she has kept for decades: “’I lost a baby when I was nineteen. . . . it died. Before that, I was married. But not to the father of the baby. . . . I’m still married now . . . Unless my husband has died . . . (2 – 4). That admission ends the holiday, and Frances finds herself compelled to revisit her hometown of Elliot in northern Saskatchewan where she explores the events and long-repressed memories that have shaped her life. Her relationship with her mother is examined, a difficult relationship considering her mother championed education and Frances had no ambition for continuing studies past high school.
Frances is not a very likeable character. As a young girl, she has no personal ambition; actually, she totally lacks self-knowledge and seems to want to coast through life. Despite warnings from many people, she makes a decision which ends badly. Her choice then is to step out of that life and pretend “It didn’t happen” (238). She makes more poor choices which she regrets and deals with by escaping into another life: “’I became a different person afterward’” (6). Of course, she can’t totally outrun her past as her spontaneous revelation to her partner suggests, and it is only by facing her past that she can move on. She is “nearer sixty than fifty” (4) when she learns to be less self-centred, realizes that she was not the only one to make bad decisions, and decides to be kinder to others?! Talk about arrested emotional development! Unfortunately, I know someone who is just like her so though Frances may be infuriating, she is realistic.
The character development is exceptional. Characters are fully developed and differentiated. Frances’ mother and father are developed so well that the reader can predict their reactions to events. Dooley Sullivan is an interesting secondary character who is given a chapter to himself. This chapter I found disconcerting since no other character is given a section from his/her point of view. The information given could have been incorporated into a conversation between Frances and Dooley when they meet on Liberty Street.
Life in a small town is portrayed very realistically. I did not grow up in rural Saskatchewan, but the attitudes and habits of the townsfolk in Elliot reflect those of the people in my small Ontario hometown.
I’ve always enjoyed books where a character must come to terms with his/her past, and this one is no exception. Frances returns to Liberty Street to get her freedom, but realizes that there is no liberty from one’s past: it makes us who we are and, hopefully, we can learn from it.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
August 17, 2016
The writing is great, but the story felt stagnant. I was intrigued about Frances & her past at the beginning, but as the novel progressed & certain events were revealed to the reader, the reality of her life didn't match my expectations for it. I liked it, but I think I would've been okay if I hadn't read it.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for the copy.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for the copy.
January 29, 2021
She will put in her time, then, Frances thinks. Endure the next few months, push aside the fear she feels whenever a vehicle passes on the road. She sees her move to the city as her best option--exile, escape to the place where a lesser mistake was made years before, the simple mistake of not locking car doors against petty criminals.
She burns the sand candle in her room until the wax caves in on itself, and then she throws it out.
She tries the guitar again, figures out three chords, and is astounded by how much her fingers hurt. This is the bed I made for myself , she thinks, the price of what happened not happening.
She tries, for her mother's sake, to show some interest in her own life.
The falsehood of her compliance: that she has finally come to her senses.
~~A farm in Saskatchewan. I pictured Frances growing up on a farm very similar to this one.
Other favorite quotes: And then there I was, with my head between my knees because the room had begun to spin. It was the word "husband" that did it--the fact I had spoken the word out loud. It was perhaps the first time I had ever referred to Joe Fletcher as my husband. When the room stilled, I lifted myself to upright, and I saw that Ian was looking at me with little sympathy for my vertiginous state.
~~Frances's mother is on the telephone, trying to rent Uncle Vince's house again, even though the last renter--an evangelical pastor named Billy Helper who'd lived in the house for a year--ran off in his flea-bitten fur coat before Alice got a chance to throw him out on his ear for writing her several bad checks. The Not-So-Reverend Helper had generally caused a commotion in town when he failed to heal the many unfortunates who had given him Sunday dinner and what he called "donations." He'd offered to lay his hands on Frances's father and heal his failing eyesight, but Basie had said no thanks, and then later, when Alice said she'd found the offer presumptuous, he said, "I imagine we should just turn a blind eye to it," which Frances always thought was hilarious.
~~And something came over Ian, and he announced that he was returning home early with or without me, an ultimatum. I had immediately known the terms: that I open the door to a locked room, giving him permission to look around, remove drop cloths, flip latches, peek into cubbyholes, turn back clocks. I didn't know if a key to that room even existed, but if it did, I was not going to use it in his presence, and I was certainly not letting him into that room without me going through its contents first.
~~When he told Angela this--that she made him feel free--she laughed and told him that he had discovered his own sol.
"It's not me," she said. "You've made yourself free."
She burns the sand candle in her room until the wax caves in on itself, and then she throws it out.
She tries the guitar again, figures out three chords, and is astounded by how much her fingers hurt. This is the bed I made for myself , she thinks, the price of what happened not happening.
She tries, for her mother's sake, to show some interest in her own life.
The falsehood of her compliance: that she has finally come to her senses.
~~A farm in Saskatchewan. I pictured Frances growing up on a farm very similar to this one.
Other favorite quotes: And then there I was, with my head between my knees because the room had begun to spin. It was the word "husband" that did it--the fact I had spoken the word out loud. It was perhaps the first time I had ever referred to Joe Fletcher as my husband. When the room stilled, I lifted myself to upright, and I saw that Ian was looking at me with little sympathy for my vertiginous state.
~~Frances's mother is on the telephone, trying to rent Uncle Vince's house again, even though the last renter--an evangelical pastor named Billy Helper who'd lived in the house for a year--ran off in his flea-bitten fur coat before Alice got a chance to throw him out on his ear for writing her several bad checks. The Not-So-Reverend Helper had generally caused a commotion in town when he failed to heal the many unfortunates who had given him Sunday dinner and what he called "donations." He'd offered to lay his hands on Frances's father and heal his failing eyesight, but Basie had said no thanks, and then later, when Alice said she'd found the offer presumptuous, he said, "I imagine we should just turn a blind eye to it," which Frances always thought was hilarious.
~~And something came over Ian, and he announced that he was returning home early with or without me, an ultimatum. I had immediately known the terms: that I open the door to a locked room, giving him permission to look around, remove drop cloths, flip latches, peek into cubbyholes, turn back clocks. I didn't know if a key to that room even existed, but if it did, I was not going to use it in his presence, and I was certainly not letting him into that room without me going through its contents first.
~~When he told Angela this--that she made him feel free--she laughed and told him that he had discovered his own sol.
"It's not me," she said. "You've made yourself free."
August 4, 2016
I got this book for free through the Penguin First to Read program. I usually enjoy the books I get through this program but I hated this. I think that I maybe wasn't the target audience, maybe it's for an older reader. Nothing monumental happens in this novel, it is a very quiet book. I often enjoy that kind of novel but in this case it felt slow and boring. The main character is an older woman reflecting on her life and flashing back on it, which sounds interesting but in this case it didn't feel purposeful. The narrator reveals big news about her earlier life right at the beginning of the novel and although we hear about those events, nothing seems resolved. There are too many loose ends. What is happening with Frances and Ian? Is she seriously just ignoring a man she spent over two decades with? Is she going back to the big city or staying in Elliot? Why did I just read this novel? I kept waiting for resolution and it never came. As a sidenote, I found Dooley and his flashbacks much more interesting even if they were a tangent that felt completely out of place in a book about a woman's interior life. I would rather read a book about Dooley.
January 26, 2017
A Canadian author with a sure grasp of the impact of place on character. Growing up in rural northwest Canada can't have been a picnic. My advice to readers is to stick with this one if you're frustrated or dismayed by narrator Frances Moon at the beginning -- she may be prickly, difficult, and hard to love at first, but she redeems herself and finds a measure of inner peace by the end. The character of Dooley Sullivan was a wonderful one, and the ending felt just right: not a fairy tale, but satisfying as all get out! A good read.
March 3, 2019
Was reading this book for my book club but I gave up. I didn’t make it past the first chapter because the protagonist’s voice is stupid and pedantic. Her husband or whatever ups and leaves her after being told about trauma from her past. It was so contrived. Then she gets on a plane and the writer fat-shames her co-passenger. It was so annoying to read that I stopped. It’s not worth it to read sizist nonsense that comes across as concern trolling. To hell with it.
May 14, 2016
A GG winner but...
About life 1960s to 2000s with a farm girl from Saskatchewan.
I have always struggled with those characters who drift through life. Give me a protagonist who makes her bed and lives in it; those who don't make it happen but become flotsam in life have less appeal. Hence only four stars; she just wasn't my kind of gal.
About life 1960s to 2000s with a farm girl from Saskatchewan.
I have always struggled with those characters who drift through life. Give me a protagonist who makes her bed and lives in it; those who don't make it happen but become flotsam in life have less appeal. Hence only four stars; she just wasn't my kind of gal.
July 12, 2015
This is CanLit (or any lit actually) at its best. Beautifully written, compelling and moving, this novel is crafted with tightly sculpted prose and peopled with uniquely wonderful characters. You won't want to put it down.
December 4, 2015
Well it was a rather sad and yet warm read with a uniquely Canadian landscape and characters. Definitely a character study that makes you ponder children and what fears and they may be holding inside that are shaping who they are and how they act.
February 6, 2016
I was hoping to enjoy this as much as Warren's earlier Cool Water, but only felt lukewarm about the protagonist Frances Moon. Dooley on the other hand was a delightful character and I was glad when their paths crossed later in life.
September 16, 2015
I read an earlier copy of this and fell in love with Frances. This is well worth adding to your autumn reading list.
Disclosure: Dianne is my friend, but honestly I just loved this book.
Disclosure: Dianne is my friend, but honestly I just loved this book.
May 18, 2018
This title was our library book club selection for the month of March. The book club gave it an average of three and a half stars.
When we first meet our protagonist Frances Moon she is on vacation with her long time partner Ian in Ireland. Something moves her to disclose secret information to Ian - things she never imagined telling anyone - revelations which rock their relationship and sends Frances back to her mother's old house on Liberty Street.
We know that young Frances is eager for her life to begin, but she has no real concept of how to get to where she wants to go. She continuously clashes with her mother over what her future will be. Mom wants nothing more than for Frances to get an education and try to make something of herself, for her to not get stuck in an untenable situation. A disastrous teenage marriage to a much older man certainly didn't help her establish her own independence, and set the tone for her future relationships and certainly goes a long way towards explaining her standoffishness.
There were mixed feelings amongst the book club about the character of Frances. Some of us found her very relatable, although naïve, while others thought she came of as spoiled and ungrateful. She has spent much of her adult years running from her bad decisions and ignoring the truth, so basically running from herself. Her solo journey back to Saskatchewan reinforces the fact of her aloneness. The prairie setting, coupled with the image of the only house on an empty street, contributed to our feeling of Frances' isolation, both mental and physical.
While our opinions of Frances varied, we all agreed that the book was a page turner with enough of a sense of hope for the future to keep it from being too 'Canadian' (i.e. lonely person defeated by the land/circumstances, left to die alone). Would definitely recommend to readers of literary fiction, fans of CanLit.
When we first meet our protagonist Frances Moon she is on vacation with her long time partner Ian in Ireland. Something moves her to disclose secret information to Ian - things she never imagined telling anyone - revelations which rock their relationship and sends Frances back to her mother's old house on Liberty Street.
We know that young Frances is eager for her life to begin, but she has no real concept of how to get to where she wants to go. She continuously clashes with her mother over what her future will be. Mom wants nothing more than for Frances to get an education and try to make something of herself, for her to not get stuck in an untenable situation. A disastrous teenage marriage to a much older man certainly didn't help her establish her own independence, and set the tone for her future relationships and certainly goes a long way towards explaining her standoffishness.
There were mixed feelings amongst the book club about the character of Frances. Some of us found her very relatable, although naïve, while others thought she came of as spoiled and ungrateful. She has spent much of her adult years running from her bad decisions and ignoring the truth, so basically running from herself. Her solo journey back to Saskatchewan reinforces the fact of her aloneness. The prairie setting, coupled with the image of the only house on an empty street, contributed to our feeling of Frances' isolation, both mental and physical.
While our opinions of Frances varied, we all agreed that the book was a page turner with enough of a sense of hope for the future to keep it from being too 'Canadian' (i.e. lonely person defeated by the land/circumstances, left to die alone). Would definitely recommend to readers of literary fiction, fans of CanLit.
June 13, 2018
While on holiday in Ireland with Ian, her common-law partner of 20 years, 60-ish Frances Moon lets slip a profound and telling truth about herself: a secret so closely guarded and with origins so deep in the past that she’d believed she’d escaped it. Once it is out, however, the secret resonates painfully into the present. Back home in Saskatchewan, she and Ian fail to reconcile, and in order to deal with the ghosts that have never actually stopped plaguing her, Frances is compelled to pack up the life she’s spent forty years constructing and return to her home town of Elliot. In Elliot she takes up residence in the house that her uncle had built more than fifty years earlier, still the only house on Liberty Street, a failed development separated from the main part of town by the railway tracks, with the intention of finally sorting through the family belongings and mementos that fill the place. Warren devotes the bulk of her novel to flashbacks that depict in highly dramatic fashion the childhood and adolescence of Frances Mary Moon, an imaginative and curious child growing up on a dairy farm with her pragmatic father and idealistic mother. Central to the story is Frances’ relationship with her mother, Alice, who is determined that Frances better herself through education and escape from Elliot, where a dreary, demoralizing, back-breaking future as a farmer’s wife surely awaits. Frances is smart but wilful. She defies her mother at every turn and on many occasions does precisely the opposite of what her mother has asked her to do. Finally, on the cusp of adulthood, rebellious to the end, she makes a life-altering mistake that she spends the next forty years trying to put behind her. The story that Warren tells is vivid and wistful. Her characters are filled with regret over their rash actions, connections not made and words left unsaid. Often moving, it is also told with wry humour. Liberty Street is a more than worthy follow-up to Dianne Warren’s GG Award winning novel Cool Water and is sure to satisfy any reader looking for a full-blooded novel about human relationships and the past that haunts us all.
November 12, 2023
Book review 📚 ✨Liberty Street by Dianne Warren
Genre-coming of age/psychological fiction
This is my second time reading this book, I first found it at Dollar tree years ago in hard back and loved it so much after reading it.
I finally found it in paper back on eBay(not sure if because she is not well known but the paper back is expensive on amazon!
I felt like I was visiting an old friend after so many years as I was reading, my eyes got misty a few times, and along with the characters and stuff that changed over the years in the story it reminded me of what has changed in my life as well since I first read this book.
I remembered some things and other things I didn't.
This one definitely gets me in my feels.
Frances Moon is carried back to her roots when she is ready to sell her uncle's house, remembering her childhood as she sits and thinks back to the very beginning.
She has and always will be hard headed to anyone she meets, not really caring what others think of her.
Being afraid of death at an early age, marrying an older man, having a baby she didn't want that didn't survive, and the biggest one not letting anyone see her emotions.
You wonder if she ever finds that happiness that she needs to feel complete.
Genre-coming of age/psychological fiction
This is my second time reading this book, I first found it at Dollar tree years ago in hard back and loved it so much after reading it.
I finally found it in paper back on eBay(not sure if because she is not well known but the paper back is expensive on amazon!
I felt like I was visiting an old friend after so many years as I was reading, my eyes got misty a few times, and along with the characters and stuff that changed over the years in the story it reminded me of what has changed in my life as well since I first read this book.
I remembered some things and other things I didn't.
This one definitely gets me in my feels.
Frances Moon is carried back to her roots when she is ready to sell her uncle's house, remembering her childhood as she sits and thinks back to the very beginning.
She has and always will be hard headed to anyone she meets, not really caring what others think of her.
Being afraid of death at an early age, marrying an older man, having a baby she didn't want that didn't survive, and the biggest one not letting anyone see her emotions.
You wonder if she ever finds that happiness that she needs to feel complete.
October 10, 2020
When the library allowed holds again I couldn't remember what do, as though my book pipeline had been too long abandoned. So I looked through the little book I keep on my bedside to record my books and looked back. I saw the book "Juliet in August" and realized I still think of it quite often, its quiet Canadian pitch. I found Liberty Street by the same author and ordered it. I think of Canadian authors as telling quiet stories because all the ones I know to read (too few, absolutely) seem to tell such quiet stories. Like Howard Norman, Miriam Toews, Elizabeth Hay, the late Carol Shields...Well, this is another quiet novel that I enjoyed immensely. The lack of explanation between the couple in the first chapter once an almost forgotten secret slips out of Frances' mouth sets the tone for a novel that will not shout, and that will take its own time in coming back around to where it began. With a quieter novel like this (save the trains passing so close to the bungalow on Liberty Street) it seems the voices stay with me longer. Dooley, Frances Moon, even Silas Chance who only has but one line.
September 27, 2025
This just disappointed as I think she is a 5 star writer. This time it was both aspects- the prime character and the backwards order to the telling. Starting with 50 plus age and then reverting to the entire in retrospect? Hmmm, I don't think it worked here.
2.5 stars rounded up for the clear minutia nuance prose of places and situations. Hope she has another Juliet coming along. This book needed a core of personality with much more depth and cognitive involvement quotient than Frances Moon held. Her essence barely kept you awake. Her emotional dissonance was appalling to distressing. She becomes a bore too as she is essentially self involved.
Honestly, Eliot as a town /location held my interest more all told. Ian himself?? Sad.
2.5 stars rounded up for the clear minutia nuance prose of places and situations. Hope she has another Juliet coming along. This book needed a core of personality with much more depth and cognitive involvement quotient than Frances Moon held. Her essence barely kept you awake. Her emotional dissonance was appalling to distressing. She becomes a bore too as she is essentially self involved.
Honestly, Eliot as a town /location held my interest more all told. Ian himself?? Sad.
March 29, 2019
At first I didn't think I would care much for this book. We're suddenly dropped into a vacation in Ireland with a couple who are obviously on the outs, and a simple admission from the past creates the catalyst for Frances Moon to return to her Canadian hometown of Elliot. Along the way we learn of her past, and this is the part that captures us. Beautifully and honestly written, I wish that Frances was a real person because she is so normal. She's not a great beauty or a secret genius, her career is nothing notable, but the things that happen have shaped her into a person I have loved reading about.
June 9, 2017
This was a compelling story. The character of Frances was both interesting and irritating. I found myself frustrated with her lack of drive. What she did or what happened to her seemed to be a matter of chance or circumstance, never personal motivation. She fell in and out of situations and relationships without real thought. The story got only slightly bogged down during the telling of her childhood but there was reason for it. After that I couldn't put the book down. I was drawn to the conclusion and to the other characters. An excellent read.
August 10, 2017
A very nice read. Character was Francis Moon, chronicled from childhood on. She was a precocious child and when I wasn't reading the book I kept thinking of Francis. Well written as eras were intertwined and characters coming and going. I loved her 'relationship' with Dooley Sullivan. Her relationship with Joe Fletcher was scary and makes you realize how naive young women can be and how lifelong decisions can be made so recklessly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed Cool Water, and was eager to read this novel. However, I was very disappointed. I could not buy into Ian's reactions to Frances' tale in the first few pages, and it took me awhile to be receptive to the Frances' life in rural Saskatchewan. The story did improve. I especially enjoyed the section on Dooley. This novel was read for a Book Club, and the discussion pretty much determined that while Dianne Warren is a fine novelist, this was not her best work.
July 13, 2019
The characters are realistically and effectively drawn, yet that in itself doesn't make up for the emotionally stunted main character. I guess Warren was trying to portray how an emotionally flat landscape stunts a person's life choices and development, and she was very adept at portraying this environment. (I wonder if this is due to her own personal upbringing--that's how realistic it seemed). Nevertheless, a character study of one so limited doesn't always make for riveting reading.
August 20, 2020
I found myself having mixed emotions while reading this book. At times I felt sorry for the main character and I felt I could really emphasize with her and at other times she made me so mad because of the decisions she was making. I can definitely understand why he mother was so frustrated with her. There were several twists to the plot that I didn’t see coming which added a great depth to the story where some old characters coming back into her life.
April 5, 2025
Since the protagonist and I are in the same age group I thought I'd like this book but after reading the 1st chapter, I'm not convinced to read the rest. I find the author's writing style very scattered. It's as if she jumps from one thought after another and sounds a bit all over the place. And coming off the tail end of reading another book where ideas flowed well into each other, this was just jolting and turned me right off. It's going to be a declutter for me.
March 21, 2018
Francis Moon's life seemed sluggish and lackadaisical. I think this is what the author intended. The length of each chapter kept me removed from the joining of the two main characters, causing me to feel the need to review before moving on. Still, did I like the read? I did. Altogether a good story.
February 27, 2022
When Frances Moon encounters a funeral procession she finds herself telling her partner things she had never shared with anyone. And then he left her.
So she decides to return to Eliot, the small town in western Canada where she grew up. But she tries to bring sense to things she thinks she remembers. With difficulty.
So she decides to return to Eliot, the small town in western Canada where she grew up. But she tries to bring sense to things she thinks she remembers. With difficulty.
March 21, 2017
I wasn't sure about Frances Moon, but as I got to know her I became really absorbed in her story. This is a great love story but it's NOT a romance!
If you see the bad cover of the long auburn hair? Don't discount the book. The picture had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
If you see the bad cover of the long auburn hair? Don't discount the book. The picture had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
August 6, 2019
Better than I expected. Two disparate but fascinating characters, each with their own overbearing parent figure, part as teens and go their own way, only to meet up later and compare their lives inbetween. And interesting lives they had!
Most enjoyable.
Most enjoyable.
May 5, 2017
Enjoyable, easy read. First book I've read by this author. Have purchased Cool Water and will be on the lookout for future works by Dianne Warren.
July 1, 2017
This is a really good book. Enjoyed the read. Canadian. Small town. Good story.
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