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Manawaka Sequence
A Jest of God
In this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness – her own and that of others – Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable.
A Jest of God won the Governor General’s Award for 1966 and was released as the successful film, Rachel, Rachel . The novel stands as a poignant and singularly enduring work by one of the world’s most distinguished authors.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness – her own and that of others – Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable.
A Jest of God won the Governor General’s Award for 1966 and was released as the successful film, Rachel, Rachel . The novel stands as a poignant and singularly enduring work by one of the world’s most distinguished authors.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
47 people are currently reading
2368 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Laurence
48 books403 followersCanada's classic authoress was born Jean Margaret Wemyss on July 18, 1926 in the prairie town of Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. Her Mom, Verna, passed away early. Her Aunt Margaret helped her Father take care of her for a year, then they married and had a Son. Their Father died two years afterwards. Aunt Margaret was a Mother to her, raising the kids in theirr maternal Grandfather's home.
Margaret wrote stories in elementary school. Her professional writing career began in 1943 with a job at the town newspaper and continued in 1944, when she entered the Honours English program at Winnipeg's United College (University Of Winnipeg.) After graduating in 1947, she was hired as a reporter for The Winnipeg Citizen. That year, she married Jack Laurence, a civil engineer.
Jack's profession took the couple to England, Somalia, and eventually Ghana, where Margaret gained an appreciation for Africa and the storytelling traditions of its peoples. It was in Africa that their children, Jocelyn and David, were born, and when Margaret began to work seriously on her writing. Her book of essays about and translations of Somali poetry and prose was published in 1954 as A Tree for Poverty. A collection of short stories, The Tomorrow-Tamer, as well as a novel, This Side Jordan (both focusing on African subjects) were published after Margaret returned home to Canada. Her fiction was thereafter concerned with Canadian subjects, but she maintained her interest in African literature and in 1968 published a critical analysis of Nigerian literature, Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists 1952-1966. Present in her African works is a concern with the ethical dilemma of being a white colonialist living in colonial Africa.
In 1957, Margaret and her family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, for five years. In 1962, Margaret & Jack divorced. She moved to London, England for a year, followed by a cottage in Buckinghamshire for ten years, although she visited Canada often. During this period, Margaret wrote her first works with Canadian subject matter.
"The Stone Angel" was published in 1964, and was the first of her "Manawaka novels", the fictional prairie community modelled after her hometown of Neepawa, Manitoba. It was followed by "A Jest Of God" in 1966 (for which she won her first Governor General's Award,) "The Fire-Dwellers" in 1969, and "A Bird In The House" in 1970. Margaret received critical and commercial acclaim in Canada and in 1971, was honoured by being named a Companion to the Order of Canada.
In the early 1970s, she returned to Canada and settled in Lakefield, Ontario. She continued to write and was writer-in-residence at the University Of Toronto, the University Of Western Ontario, and Trent University. In 1974, Margaret completed her final novel, "The Diviners", for which she received the Governor General's Award and the Molson Prize. It was followed by a book of essays, Heart Of A Stranger" in 1976 and several children's books: "Jason's Quest", "The Olden-Days Coat", "Six Darn Cows", and "The Christmas Birthday Story". Her autobiography "Dance On The Earth" was published in 1987.
Margaret died on January 5, 1987 at her home in Lakefield, after learning her lung cancer diagnosis was terminal. She is buried in Neepawa Cemetery, a few metres from the stone angel which inspired her novel.
Margaret wrote stories in elementary school. Her professional writing career began in 1943 with a job at the town newspaper and continued in 1944, when she entered the Honours English program at Winnipeg's United College (University Of Winnipeg.) After graduating in 1947, she was hired as a reporter for The Winnipeg Citizen. That year, she married Jack Laurence, a civil engineer.
Jack's profession took the couple to England, Somalia, and eventually Ghana, where Margaret gained an appreciation for Africa and the storytelling traditions of its peoples. It was in Africa that their children, Jocelyn and David, were born, and when Margaret began to work seriously on her writing. Her book of essays about and translations of Somali poetry and prose was published in 1954 as A Tree for Poverty. A collection of short stories, The Tomorrow-Tamer, as well as a novel, This Side Jordan (both focusing on African subjects) were published after Margaret returned home to Canada. Her fiction was thereafter concerned with Canadian subjects, but she maintained her interest in African literature and in 1968 published a critical analysis of Nigerian literature, Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists 1952-1966. Present in her African works is a concern with the ethical dilemma of being a white colonialist living in colonial Africa.
In 1957, Margaret and her family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, for five years. In 1962, Margaret & Jack divorced. She moved to London, England for a year, followed by a cottage in Buckinghamshire for ten years, although she visited Canada often. During this period, Margaret wrote her first works with Canadian subject matter.
"The Stone Angel" was published in 1964, and was the first of her "Manawaka novels", the fictional prairie community modelled after her hometown of Neepawa, Manitoba. It was followed by "A Jest Of God" in 1966 (for which she won her first Governor General's Award,) "The Fire-Dwellers" in 1969, and "A Bird In The House" in 1970. Margaret received critical and commercial acclaim in Canada and in 1971, was honoured by being named a Companion to the Order of Canada.
In the early 1970s, she returned to Canada and settled in Lakefield, Ontario. She continued to write and was writer-in-residence at the University Of Toronto, the University Of Western Ontario, and Trent University. In 1974, Margaret completed her final novel, "The Diviners", for which she received the Governor General's Award and the Molson Prize. It was followed by a book of essays, Heart Of A Stranger" in 1976 and several children's books: "Jason's Quest", "The Olden-Days Coat", "Six Darn Cows", and "The Christmas Birthday Story". Her autobiography "Dance On The Earth" was published in 1987.
Margaret died on January 5, 1987 at her home in Lakefield, after learning her lung cancer diagnosis was terminal. She is buried in Neepawa Cemetery, a few metres from the stone angel which inspired her novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 218 reviews
June 16, 2017
"My great mistake was in being born the younger. No. Where I went wrong was in coming back here, once I'd got away. A person has to be ruthless. One has to say I'm going, and not be prevailed upon to return."
This is now definitely a favorite book and author of mine. I just know that I will love Laurence's other works, especially those set in Manawaka. Rachel is such a dear character. Probably viewed by many in her little town, including her mother, as a quiet and submissive spinster school teacher, Rachel is anything but that. She has dreams, passions and is sarcastic as heck. Just like the Paul Newman film based on this book implies, most of the plot and dialogue takes place in her head.
One crazy summer, a whole heap of things happen to Rachel that act as a catalyst that forces Rachel to take her life into her own hands, and to stop letting others make decisions for her. You go girl! Love, love, love this book. I've already ordered the rest of Laurence's books because I feel like it might not be too late to make 2017 my "Year of Margaret Laurence." I found my copy of this book on the last day of my vacation in Maui. I had watched the film a month earlier and it had just lingered in the back of my mind...so when I saw this title on the shelf with other books, it immediately jumped out at me. The best souvenirs are books, in my humble opinion.
July 1, 2023
Frustrated woman questions her thoughts and decisions for many, many pages. The end.
January 8, 2018
Alex Colville, "Summer in Town"
When I picked up this book to start reading it, I giggled at how incredibly Canadian it is. Adorned with the above Colville painting, winner of the 1966 Governor General's Award, set in Manawaka, Manitoba, with an afterword by Margaret Atwood. It doesn't get too much more high-brow Canuck than this!
This is the second in the Manawaka series, following The Stone Angel. Like The Stone Angel, this book features a female protagonist, and her very interior struggles. Rachel Cameron is 34, a primary school teacher living with her hypochondriac, guilt-tripping mother. She is trapped in their apartment, fittingly situated over a funeral home.
The claustrophobia extends past their home, into the small community of Manawaka, where she fears the judgment of all the watching eyes, where she constantly berates herself for the most minute action, questioning herself and tying herself tighter and tighter into her secretive self-made prison of anxiety. She is possibly the loneliest character I've read in a long time.
She desperately wants to be seen as a good person, to be a good daughter. But she also wants love, sex, connection, even motherhood, though those seem to be impossibilities. When Nick Kazlik enters her life, though, she has hope for the future.
This book is actually a coming-of-age story, even though the person in question is in her mid-thirties and should have come-to-age a long time ago. She's depicted as coltish on long, tottering legs, she's sexually inexperienced, living much like an adolescent under the strong thumb of her mother. She starts to see that "people get the lives they want" - and if this is the case, how will she make that happen for herself? In desperation, she asks for God's help. The "answer" she gets is a joke on herself and anyone who cares about what other people think.
I love Margaret Laurence's writing. I love the strong voice she gives to women, to Canadians, and how modern this still reads, even though it was written over half a century ago.
Alex Colville, "To Prince Edward Island"
October 24, 2022
A re-read - last time was probably 10 or more years ago, and first read in the 90s, when I was in Canada. I read a lot of Canadian authors then!
In my last read of "A Jest of God", Rachel's narration quite often confused me. She slips into frequent reveries or wishful scenarios of how she would like things to happen. This time I easily recognized the shifts in her perspective. Most of the book is written in first person - with dialogue providing an alternative to the intensely interior world of our main character.
The novel is part of Laurence's Manawaka series. Manawaka is a fictional town based on Neepawa, Manitoba, where she grew up. I've read the others in this series - The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and The Fire-Dwellers - where we follow the story of Rachel's sister, who has moved to Vancouver.
There was a point in my reading where I wanted to put the book down - feeling that Rachel's character was dreary and depressing to the point of tedium. Critics have commented on the unattractive qualities of Rachel Cameron - her hesitancy, temerity - but Laurence was at pains to portray a character severely restricted by her rural background and her historical inheritance. Rachel describes Manawaka where half the town were Ukrainian immigrants and the other half Scots/Irish. The focus of the book revolves on the relationship between Rachel and her mother - who is domineering in terms of social etiquette and yet financially reliant on Rachel who teaches in the local primary school. Rachel's father died, some years previously (outside the time-frame of the current story) and the loss of income forced Rachel to give up her university place and return to Manawaka. 14 years, later she is stuck in this small town and at the age of 34, fears she will be a spinster for ever.
School ends for the summer and Rachel encouters Nick Kazlik; a qualified teacher back from The City to help his ageing parents on their farm. Nick's use of Rachel is brutal and yet her involvement and feelings for him are a result of her sheltered upbringing and the traditional views of romantic love, marriage and motherhood.
The real kick in the novel is the last third of the story when Rachel struggles with the impossibility of unwedded pregnancy. When she finally summons the courage to go to the local doctor - this is the scene she dreads:
'Hello, Rachel. It's for yourself, this time?'
We've had so many dealings, Doctor Raven and myself - mother's heart, my persistent winter headcolds, the bowels and bones of both, the inability to sleep, the migraine and dyspepsia, all the admittable woes of the flesh. This is a new one I'm bringing now.
'Yes.'
'Sit down, my dear.' He looks at me with his old eyes, still competent and able to appraise. 'What's the trouble? Not the bronchitis again, I hope?'
'No. I - I've missed my period this month.'
I sit here, waiting once more, waiting for him to speak. 'It's none of my business, Rachel dear, but I've known your family for a long time, and as a doctor I have to ask -' What will I say'?
'Well,' Doctor Raven is saying in his comfortable and comforting voice, 'at least we know there's no question of one thing, anyway, with a sensible girl like yourself. That at least can be ruled out, eh? Can't say the same for them all, I'm afraid.'
That's right "sensible girls" don't have sex - according to the good doctor. The date you say? Well - Rachel's father - served in WWII; so I'm guessing early to mid 60s.
The novel deals indirectly with various other women - Calla, for instance a colleague at the school, who approaches Rachel - but knows already that Rachel will reject her. The portrait of the clinging, sickly mother - who has led a life of deep disappointment - her husband, Rachel's father shunning all contact with 'living flesh'. He was the town's undertaker. Rachel and her mother live above The Japonica Funeral Home.
The book tackles the heavy responsibility of individual definition - and instead emphasizes the burden of inheritance. Rachel has to break away, if she is to survive, not simply from her cultural inheritance but also the physical boundaries and isolation of the small prairie town.
I cannot emphasize enough the strength of Laurence's analysis of how individuals are shaped by the circumstances of their birth and yet she provides a relatively upbeat ending. We believe that Rachel will find the strength to make changes; and she may or may not find a better life.
In my last read of "A Jest of God", Rachel's narration quite often confused me. She slips into frequent reveries or wishful scenarios of how she would like things to happen. This time I easily recognized the shifts in her perspective. Most of the book is written in first person - with dialogue providing an alternative to the intensely interior world of our main character.
The novel is part of Laurence's Manawaka series. Manawaka is a fictional town based on Neepawa, Manitoba, where she grew up. I've read the others in this series - The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and The Fire-Dwellers - where we follow the story of Rachel's sister, who has moved to Vancouver.
There was a point in my reading where I wanted to put the book down - feeling that Rachel's character was dreary and depressing to the point of tedium. Critics have commented on the unattractive qualities of Rachel Cameron - her hesitancy, temerity - but Laurence was at pains to portray a character severely restricted by her rural background and her historical inheritance. Rachel describes Manawaka where half the town were Ukrainian immigrants and the other half Scots/Irish. The focus of the book revolves on the relationship between Rachel and her mother - who is domineering in terms of social etiquette and yet financially reliant on Rachel who teaches in the local primary school. Rachel's father died, some years previously (outside the time-frame of the current story) and the loss of income forced Rachel to give up her university place and return to Manawaka. 14 years, later she is stuck in this small town and at the age of 34, fears she will be a spinster for ever.
School ends for the summer and Rachel encouters Nick Kazlik; a qualified teacher back from The City to help his ageing parents on their farm. Nick's use of Rachel is brutal and yet her involvement and feelings for him are a result of her sheltered upbringing and the traditional views of romantic love, marriage and motherhood.
The real kick in the novel is the last third of the story when Rachel struggles with the impossibility of unwedded pregnancy. When she finally summons the courage to go to the local doctor - this is the scene she dreads:
'Hello, Rachel. It's for yourself, this time?'
We've had so many dealings, Doctor Raven and myself - mother's heart, my persistent winter headcolds, the bowels and bones of both, the inability to sleep, the migraine and dyspepsia, all the admittable woes of the flesh. This is a new one I'm bringing now.
'Yes.'
'Sit down, my dear.' He looks at me with his old eyes, still competent and able to appraise. 'What's the trouble? Not the bronchitis again, I hope?'
'No. I - I've missed my period this month.'
I sit here, waiting once more, waiting for him to speak. 'It's none of my business, Rachel dear, but I've known your family for a long time, and as a doctor I have to ask -' What will I say'?
'Well,' Doctor Raven is saying in his comfortable and comforting voice, 'at least we know there's no question of one thing, anyway, with a sensible girl like yourself. That at least can be ruled out, eh? Can't say the same for them all, I'm afraid.'
That's right "sensible girls" don't have sex - according to the good doctor. The date you say? Well - Rachel's father - served in WWII; so I'm guessing early to mid 60s.
The novel deals indirectly with various other women - Calla, for instance a colleague at the school, who approaches Rachel - but knows already that Rachel will reject her. The portrait of the clinging, sickly mother - who has led a life of deep disappointment - her husband, Rachel's father shunning all contact with 'living flesh'. He was the town's undertaker. Rachel and her mother live above The Japonica Funeral Home.
The book tackles the heavy responsibility of individual definition - and instead emphasizes the burden of inheritance. Rachel has to break away, if she is to survive, not simply from her cultural inheritance but also the physical boundaries and isolation of the small prairie town.
I cannot emphasize enough the strength of Laurence's analysis of how individuals are shaped by the circumstances of their birth and yet she provides a relatively upbeat ending. We believe that Rachel will find the strength to make changes; and she may or may not find a better life.
April 10, 2024
In her work Jest of God Margaret Laurence writes a tightly scripted, claustrophobic character study of 34 year-old primary school teacher Rachel Cameron. This novel is primarily told through Rachel's inner dialogue as she constantly questions herself, her motives, and her realities. The plot is simple, an unmarried woman living in small town Canada with and caring for her mother who has a heart condition, envious of her sister who "gets out" and lives some distance a way with her husband and children. Rachel meets a man and the relationship and subsequent events lead to changes over the course of a summer.
Rachel's mother, in particular, is skillfully drawn; she places the knife of guilt where it can draw blood without doing mortal damage.
Laurence explores how one can move forward in a life where one is raised to sacrifice and care for others, to consider outside appearances, and to put one's self last.
I believe Laurence accomplishes what she sets out to do here, her prose is wonderful, and this style of novel is just not my cup of tea. 4 Stars for the mastery of the writing and use of structure. I love Laurence's The Stone Angel, and I plan to read to read more of her novels in the future.
Publication 1966
Rachel's mother, in particular, is skillfully drawn; she places the knife of guilt where it can draw blood without doing mortal damage.
Laurence explores how one can move forward in a life where one is raised to sacrifice and care for others, to consider outside appearances, and to put one's self last.
I believe Laurence accomplishes what she sets out to do here, her prose is wonderful, and this style of novel is just not my cup of tea. 4 Stars for the mastery of the writing and use of structure. I love Laurence's The Stone Angel, and I plan to read to read more of her novels in the future.
Publication 1966
July 16, 2023
Rachel Cameron is a 34 year old spinster schoolteacher, who lives with her mother. The time is the 1930's, the setting is a small provincial town in Manitoba, Canada. To say that Rachel is frustrated and unhappy is putting it mildly. Written in the first person, her internal dialogue, naivety and questioning of every comment or action she and others make drove me insane at the beginning. So did her whiny, complaining mother. Then one summer she meets a man she had been in school with, back in town to visit his parents.......and thereby hangs a tale.
Rachel finds the courage to break out of the role that had been assigned her by virtue of being raised as a good girl in that time and place. The final scene with her mother had me cheering, and left me feeling hopeful. She had been through some things that hardened her, changed some attitudes, and ultimately gave her strength.
My third book in the Manawaka series by Margaret Laurence did not disappoint. This was made into a film starring JoAnne Woodward as Rachel. I saw Rachel, Rachel (film title) many years ago in the theater, and will be looking for a streaming venue to watch it again.
Rachel finds the courage to break out of the role that had been assigned her by virtue of being raised as a good girl in that time and place. The final scene with her mother had me cheering, and left me feeling hopeful. She had been through some things that hardened her, changed some attitudes, and ultimately gave her strength.
My third book in the Manawaka series by Margaret Laurence did not disappoint. This was made into a film starring JoAnne Woodward as Rachel. I saw Rachel, Rachel (film title) many years ago in the theater, and will be looking for a streaming venue to watch it again.
February 22, 2014
this is a review from 30,000 feet. i floated above the words in the book as i read rather than immersing myself in the action as i normally do because my reading brain has abandoned me. this slim novel should not have taken me the weeks? a month? more? that it took to get through. margaret atwood, to me, the lesser margaret of canadian literature, remarks in her afterword about this book by the margaret i consider the greater, that she read it in one sitting, which seems about right (just because i dislike her characters does not mean i always disagree with her.) still, i believe my weak powers of concentration did me an inadvertent service here because a jest of god is not an easy book to read, even if it is, in style and on the surface, a simple one.
rachel cameron is a thirty-four year old woman who teaches grade two and lives with her mother in a small apartment in the house in the small town she grew up in. the man who bought her deceased drunk father's funeral parlour that makes up the rest of the house allowed them to stay on in perpetuity as part of the terms of sale. she has a sister who got married and moved away and never comes home, leaving the care of her preening, selfish, overbearing and hypochondriacal mother to rachel. on the surface it would seem that rachel doesn't mind. she goes through the motions of her life, teaching her students, minding her mother, accompanying her colleague calla to tabernacle even though she has no faith, all the while thinking terrible thoughts about them. sometimes her inner monologue and the action blurs, as if rachel cracks and spurts out that venom that keeps circulating through her repressed mind. rachel is not likeable but she is, as a character, a brittle bitch i can finally understand. sorry, muriel spark; sorry, margaret atwood (but not really.)
rachel's never been married but she's horny and when an old acquaintance, also a teacher, a man named nick, comes back to town for the summer holiday, she has an affair with him. it is her first ever, and now her thoughts turn to fantasy of sex with nick (even as she's having sex with nick), of love with nick and a life with nick. but the affair with nick is not the stuff of fairy tale. margaret laurence does not allow the reader any such delusion even if rachel carries on in her own mind. from the first date, nick is a selfish prick, in all senses. rachel flounders, attempting to listen, to make conversation but eventually begins to wish for none, only to be filled by him and to return to the embroidering of her fantasy, and then to the machinations of her duty, to dear mama. nick made me revolt. i found rachel's desperation and her fantasy maddening, and many aspects of their relationship, of all the relationships between rachel and the characters she comes into contact with, to be difficult, even soul-destroying, all the more because you can understand why these people are that way.
this is why, as a reader, as a woman, was grateful i had not fallen into the novel: understanding rachel meant there was so much to be frustrated and feel trapped by, so much to resent, so much reason to be as rachel was, and nobody would want that. but i held fast and margaret laurence rewarded me: she shattered the fantasies and her character and my conceptions, and she laid those shards out in a different shape, and when i reached the end, i felt that she had led both her reader and rachel, still unlikeable, still bitter, still thinking things one would never say out loud, but still human for all that, into a place where something else was possible, where choices could be made, where change could come. there are a few key scenes in the book that really shock you into appreciating rachel's emotional ignorance that i think the reader has to experience for themselves even though my mind immediately darts to them when i think about the book. this is not a romance: rachel is not a woman that will be rescued by love and i am grateful for that. the relationship with nick is merely a spur and the action is just a backdrop for the exploration of the themes of duty, family, of life and death that laurence explores, and the bombshells that she drops.
at one point, rachel goes to the visit the man who took over her father's funeral parlour, and i think this is when she finally begins to gain clarity. in discussing her father, she is stunned by another perspective, and a realization that some people might actually choose stasis or solitude, that it's not necessarily a by-product of obligation.
i give the book five stars because while it's not really a pleasant experience, i can't deny how powerfully wrought it is. laurence is really a consummate writer and plays her reader like a fiddle. i do believe that it is harder to respect this work without remembering that it was written in 1966, and it has dated to some degree (atwood argues differently in her afterword but she wrote that more than twenty-five years ago now). some of it is, quite frankly, outrageous in a contemporary world. but i cannot fault margaret laurence for this: i believe novels like hers made it possible to help challenge contemporary minds of that era so that we could get to where we are now, and if we are cognizant of this as we read a jest of god, we can appreciate it more.
rachel cameron is a thirty-four year old woman who teaches grade two and lives with her mother in a small apartment in the house in the small town she grew up in. the man who bought her deceased drunk father's funeral parlour that makes up the rest of the house allowed them to stay on in perpetuity as part of the terms of sale. she has a sister who got married and moved away and never comes home, leaving the care of her preening, selfish, overbearing and hypochondriacal mother to rachel. on the surface it would seem that rachel doesn't mind. she goes through the motions of her life, teaching her students, minding her mother, accompanying her colleague calla to tabernacle even though she has no faith, all the while thinking terrible thoughts about them. sometimes her inner monologue and the action blurs, as if rachel cracks and spurts out that venom that keeps circulating through her repressed mind. rachel is not likeable but she is, as a character, a brittle bitch i can finally understand. sorry, muriel spark; sorry, margaret atwood (but not really.)
rachel's never been married but she's horny and when an old acquaintance, also a teacher, a man named nick, comes back to town for the summer holiday, she has an affair with him. it is her first ever, and now her thoughts turn to fantasy of sex with nick (even as she's having sex with nick), of love with nick and a life with nick. but the affair with nick is not the stuff of fairy tale. margaret laurence does not allow the reader any such delusion even if rachel carries on in her own mind. from the first date, nick is a selfish prick, in all senses. rachel flounders, attempting to listen, to make conversation but eventually begins to wish for none, only to be filled by him and to return to the embroidering of her fantasy, and then to the machinations of her duty, to dear mama. nick made me revolt. i found rachel's desperation and her fantasy maddening, and many aspects of their relationship, of all the relationships between rachel and the characters she comes into contact with, to be difficult, even soul-destroying, all the more because you can understand why these people are that way.
this is why, as a reader, as a woman, was grateful i had not fallen into the novel: understanding rachel meant there was so much to be frustrated and feel trapped by, so much to resent, so much reason to be as rachel was, and nobody would want that. but i held fast and margaret laurence rewarded me: she shattered the fantasies and her character and my conceptions, and she laid those shards out in a different shape, and when i reached the end, i felt that she had led both her reader and rachel, still unlikeable, still bitter, still thinking things one would never say out loud, but still human for all that, into a place where something else was possible, where choices could be made, where change could come. there are a few key scenes in the book that really shock you into appreciating rachel's emotional ignorance that i think the reader has to experience for themselves even though my mind immediately darts to them when i think about the book. this is not a romance: rachel is not a woman that will be rescued by love and i am grateful for that. the relationship with nick is merely a spur and the action is just a backdrop for the exploration of the themes of duty, family, of life and death that laurence explores, and the bombshells that she drops.
at one point, rachel goes to the visit the man who took over her father's funeral parlour, and i think this is when she finally begins to gain clarity. in discussing her father, she is stunned by another perspective, and a realization that some people might actually choose stasis or solitude, that it's not necessarily a by-product of obligation.
i give the book five stars because while it's not really a pleasant experience, i can't deny how powerfully wrought it is. laurence is really a consummate writer and plays her reader like a fiddle. i do believe that it is harder to respect this work without remembering that it was written in 1966, and it has dated to some degree (atwood argues differently in her afterword but she wrote that more than twenty-five years ago now). some of it is, quite frankly, outrageous in a contemporary world. but i cannot fault margaret laurence for this: i believe novels like hers made it possible to help challenge contemporary minds of that era so that we could get to where we are now, and if we are cognizant of this as we read a jest of god, we can appreciate it more.
May 27, 2024
Rachel Cameron captured my heart. After living with her thoughts over 202 pages, I feel like I know her as well if not better than many of my real life friends.
Rachel is 34 years old stuck in small town Manawaka in Manitoba, Canada. She is trapped by her circumstances- her widowed mother is afflicted by ill health so she has to stay with her. She has no real freedom- her mother questions every move she makes and loads her with guilt. There seems no possibility of change, but then Nick Kaslik comes back for the summer and there is a flicker of hope.
Rachel may be 34 years old but having lived under her mother’s thumb for so long, she is insecure, she questions all her decisions, she can’t stand up for herself.
Margaret Laurence captured Rachel and her daily/ hourly struggles perfectly. I loved the ending she chose for her. A pitch perfect book for this reader!
Published: 1966
Rachel is 34 years old stuck in small town Manawaka in Manitoba, Canada. She is trapped by her circumstances- her widowed mother is afflicted by ill health so she has to stay with her. She has no real freedom- her mother questions every move she makes and loads her with guilt. There seems no possibility of change, but then Nick Kaslik comes back for the summer and there is a flicker of hope.
Rachel may be 34 years old but having lived under her mother’s thumb for so long, she is insecure, she questions all her decisions, she can’t stand up for herself.
Margaret Laurence captured Rachel and her daily/ hourly struggles perfectly. I loved the ending she chose for her. A pitch perfect book for this reader!
Published: 1966
August 18, 2023
I’m not so stupid as to imagine these chance encounters lead to anything permanent. Except that all of my life seems a chance encounter, and everything that happens to me is permanent.
It is almost frightening to me that I could understand and relate to Rachel Cameron so completely. She second-guesses herself at every turn. She never knows exactly what she wants–or even if she thinks she does, she hasn’t the slightest idea how to get it. She worries over everyone’s feelings more than her own, and she is a victim of careless disregard and nearly unrelenting manipulation as a result. But there is some part of her that rebels against her own nature, and I think that is the part that I loved and rooted for.
Margaret Laurence writes with amazing acuity of the internal battle one woman faces for individuality and freedom in a world that has set unassailable rules for who an unmarried woman is allowed to be. Life is always easier for those who fit the model; in the words of Janis Ian
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired.
Rachel isn’t seventeen, but she is one of those who doesn’t fit the mold and never learns the nuances of the dance. She has never mastered the art of self-definition, and what is worse, she sees and feels everything she lacks.
Laurence dabbles in realism, so you know, going in, that there is not a fairytale ending coming your way. However, I thought the ending she chose was perfect. Sometimes you cannot ask for more than metamorphosis and hope.
It is almost frightening to me that I could understand and relate to Rachel Cameron so completely. She second-guesses herself at every turn. She never knows exactly what she wants–or even if she thinks she does, she hasn’t the slightest idea how to get it. She worries over everyone’s feelings more than her own, and she is a victim of careless disregard and nearly unrelenting manipulation as a result. But there is some part of her that rebels against her own nature, and I think that is the part that I loved and rooted for.
Margaret Laurence writes with amazing acuity of the internal battle one woman faces for individuality and freedom in a world that has set unassailable rules for who an unmarried woman is allowed to be. Life is always easier for those who fit the model; in the words of Janis Ian
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired.
Rachel isn’t seventeen, but she is one of those who doesn’t fit the mold and never learns the nuances of the dance. She has never mastered the art of self-definition, and what is worse, she sees and feels everything she lacks.
Laurence dabbles in realism, so you know, going in, that there is not a fairytale ending coming your way. However, I thought the ending she chose was perfect. Sometimes you cannot ask for more than metamorphosis and hope.
August 29, 2017
If only I could concur with Margaret Atwood's enthusiasm for 'A Jest of God' and her boundless admiration for Margaret Laurence, who had the power to reduce her to 'a quaking jelly'.
If only I had a time machine. It would take me to year 1966 and I would reread 'A Jest of God' then. At that point I would probably look like that, while writing this review:
Alas, the year is 2017 and as it seems, some charm of this novel has evaporated. It made me think of a long-forgotten bottle of once-alluring perfume.
Review to come.
If only I had a time machine. It would take me to year 1966 and I would reread 'A Jest of God' then. At that point I would probably look like that, while writing this review:
Alas, the year is 2017 and as it seems, some charm of this novel has evaporated. It made me think of a long-forgotten bottle of once-alluring perfume.
Review to come.
October 24, 2022
This was the book I had the first time I read A Jest of God - it forms part of my memories of being in Canada. I was a student in Edmonton, Alberta. And one of the things I quickly learned about Canada was its ongoing competition with the US, and thus the promotion of its own writers: Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro in the top eschelons; Farley Mowat and Jack London in the lower ranks. One of the identifying features of Canadian literature however is the influence of its unique landscape and the history of Canadian settlement - something quite different and separate from the Landmass further south.
April 13, 2017
(3.5) This is the second in Laurence’s five-novel Manawaka sequence; it followed
The Stone Angel
(1964), which I reviewed in December. Recently reissued as part of the Apollo Classics imprint, these two books have been a wonderful opportunity for me to further my knowledge of Canadian literature.
Although Rachel Cameron, the narrator of A Jest of God, is a 34-year-old second-grade teacher who still lives with her mother, she has attributes in common with 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, the unforgettable central character of The Stone Angel. Both have a history of sexual hang-ups – Rachel’s in the form of erotic dreams – and experience temporary losses of self-control. The most striking example is when Rachel reluctantly accepts her fellow teacher Calla’s invitation to her Pentecostal church and, though she is mortified at hearing others speaking in tongues, involuntarily enters in herself with hysterical crying.
I loved this sequence. The Tabernacle of the Risen and Reborn provides such a contrast to Rachel’s mother’s staid church tradition, and it’s a perfect introduction to Rachel’s patterns of pride and embarrassment (another link to Hagar). Although Rachel frequently issues stern orders to herself – “Now, then. Enough of this. The main thing is to be sensible, to stop thinking and to go to sleep” – she can’t seem to stop worrying and second-guessing. This applies to her career as well as to her personal relationships. With her principal’s support, she takes surprisingly stern action against her favorite pupil when he starts playing truant.
It’s hard to say much more about the plot without giving too much away. Do I emulate the vagueness of the back cover blurb and simply explain that Rachel unexpectedly “falls in love for the first time, and embarks upon an affair that will change her life in unforeseen ways”? I’d prefer to go into a bit more depth.
Two aspects of this reprint edition deserve a mention. There’s a terrific afterword from Margaret Atwood recalling meeting Laurence, her literary idol, at the Governor General’s Awards ceremony in 1967 (Atwood won for poetry and Laurence won for fiction with this novel). Apollo Classics have also chosen an excellent cover image: a 1960 photograph by Rosemary Gilliat Eaton entitled Woman preparing paint for an art class, Frobisher Bay.
Once again, I enjoyed Laurence’s turns of phrase, especially when describing people: Calla is a “wind-dishevelled owl,” while the six-foot-tall Rachel sees herself in the mirror as “this giraffe woman, this lank scamperer.” But the overall story for me was significantly less memorable than The Stone Angel. It sounds like the third book of the Manawaka series will center on Rachel’s older sister Stacey, who lives near Vancouver with her husband and four children. Whether I’ll ever read this and the final two I couldn’t say, but I’m glad to have had a chance to read a couple of fine examples of Laurence’s work. (And I’m keen to read her memoir, Dance on the Earth, which draws on the five years she and her husband lived in Africa.)
With thanks to Blake Brooks at Head of Zeus/Apollo Classics for the free copy for review.
Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Although Rachel Cameron, the narrator of A Jest of God, is a 34-year-old second-grade teacher who still lives with her mother, she has attributes in common with 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, the unforgettable central character of The Stone Angel. Both have a history of sexual hang-ups – Rachel’s in the form of erotic dreams – and experience temporary losses of self-control. The most striking example is when Rachel reluctantly accepts her fellow teacher Calla’s invitation to her Pentecostal church and, though she is mortified at hearing others speaking in tongues, involuntarily enters in herself with hysterical crying.
I loved this sequence. The Tabernacle of the Risen and Reborn provides such a contrast to Rachel’s mother’s staid church tradition, and it’s a perfect introduction to Rachel’s patterns of pride and embarrassment (another link to Hagar). Although Rachel frequently issues stern orders to herself – “Now, then. Enough of this. The main thing is to be sensible, to stop thinking and to go to sleep” – she can’t seem to stop worrying and second-guessing. This applies to her career as well as to her personal relationships. With her principal’s support, she takes surprisingly stern action against her favorite pupil when he starts playing truant.
It’s hard to say much more about the plot without giving too much away. Do I emulate the vagueness of the back cover blurb and simply explain that Rachel unexpectedly “falls in love for the first time, and embarks upon an affair that will change her life in unforeseen ways”? I’d prefer to go into a bit more depth.
Two aspects of this reprint edition deserve a mention. There’s a terrific afterword from Margaret Atwood recalling meeting Laurence, her literary idol, at the Governor General’s Awards ceremony in 1967 (Atwood won for poetry and Laurence won for fiction with this novel). Apollo Classics have also chosen an excellent cover image: a 1960 photograph by Rosemary Gilliat Eaton entitled Woman preparing paint for an art class, Frobisher Bay.
Once again, I enjoyed Laurence’s turns of phrase, especially when describing people: Calla is a “wind-dishevelled owl,” while the six-foot-tall Rachel sees herself in the mirror as “this giraffe woman, this lank scamperer.” But the overall story for me was significantly less memorable than The Stone Angel. It sounds like the third book of the Manawaka series will center on Rachel’s older sister Stacey, who lives near Vancouver with her husband and four children. Whether I’ll ever read this and the final two I couldn’t say, but I’m glad to have had a chance to read a couple of fine examples of Laurence’s work. (And I’m keen to read her memoir, Dance on the Earth, which draws on the five years she and her husband lived in Africa.)
With thanks to Blake Brooks at Head of Zeus/Apollo Classics for the free copy for review.
Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck.
April 29, 2022
Erst nachdem ich das ganze Buch durchgelesen hatte, habe ich mitbekommen, dass die Geschichte in 1966 geschrieben wurde. Man merkt der Geschichte fast gar nicht an, dass sie schon älter ist; die Zweifel von Rachel, das Unbehagen einer Frau, die zwischen der Welt draußen und Zuhause gefangen ist, und auch die Rolle von Tugend und Scham werden hier sehr detailliert erforscht und fühlen sich immer noch aktuell an. An manchen Stellen sehr intensiv, an anderen mit Selbstironie und Sarkasmus lernen wir Rachels innere Wünsche und Träume kennen. Am Anfang war ich mir nicht sicher, was mich erwartet und hatte mit Rachel zu kämpfen, weil sie mich mit ihrer Art frustriert hat. Aber trotzdem konnte ich nicht aufhören die Geschichte zu lesen und war dann überrascht, dass die Geschichte doch mehr zu bieten hatte als einfache Unterhaltung. Es war ein Page-Turner und irgendwann setzte auch das Verständnis und Mitgefühl für Rachel ein. Dieses Buch gehört auf jeden Fall zu den Geschichten, die mich zum Nachdenken angeregt haben, und verdient 4,5 Sterne. Ich könnte mir das Buch übrigens auch sehr gut für ein Buchclub vorstellen!
** Dieses Buch wurde mir über NetGalley als E-Book zur Verfügung gestellt **
** Dieses Buch wurde mir über NetGalley als E-Book zur Verfügung gestellt **
May 2, 2024
I felt deeply Rachel's intrusive thoughts. That constant mix of worrying and dreaming. Margaret Laurence captured splendidly their intensity and power.
The author created supremely other characters too. Rachel's mother, Calla, Nick Kazlik and his parents. Laurence was great at human examination.
You can also find in this novel a glimpse at the specific time and place, at a woman who had her first affair (and her first sexual experience).
In other words, the book was a fascinating character study (and how nice and proper family and society sometimes can be oppressive).
The author created supremely other characters too. Rachel's mother, Calla, Nick Kazlik and his parents. Laurence was great at human examination.
You can also find in this novel a glimpse at the specific time and place, at a woman who had her first affair (and her first sexual experience).
In other words, the book was a fascinating character study (and how nice and proper family and society sometimes can be oppressive).
February 24, 2017
I love the way Laurence writes, but I do not expect happy reads. Her characters are real people, but they often withhold themselves emotionally. My memory isn't perfect on the others I've read, so I can't say this is a willful withholding. It isn't willful here - Rachel Cameron would like more than anything to be able to speak what she thinks. But she is too careful of her listener and wouldn't for anything hurt someone's feelings.
This is written mostly in the first person. While not in the least stream of consciousness (no run on sentences here!), nearly all of it is internal dialogue. Some of it is Rachel "wool gathering", considering how she might respond in certain circumstances, even picturing how others might act if a future situation might occur. It's more than "if he says that, I'll say this" - but we've probably all been there to some extent.
I could write more - so very much more - but the more I want to write become huge spoilers. I wanted this to be a 5-star read, and I can't figure out why I think it comes up short. But it does, and that's that.
This is written mostly in the first person. While not in the least stream of consciousness (no run on sentences here!), nearly all of it is internal dialogue. Some of it is Rachel "wool gathering", considering how she might respond in certain circumstances, even picturing how others might act if a future situation might occur. It's more than "if he says that, I'll say this" - but we've probably all been there to some extent.
I could write more - so very much more - but the more I want to write become huge spoilers. I wanted this to be a 5-star read, and I can't figure out why I think it comes up short. But it does, and that's that.
August 13, 2023
This is the second novel I've read by Margaret Laurence, after The Stone Angel. As impressed as I was with the writing in that book, I think this one shows even greater technical artistry.
Laurence takes the reader very deep inside the mind of Rachel, a repressed single school teacher in her mid-thirties who cares for her ostensibly sick mother. Their relationship is complex to say the least. We are privy to a continuous stream of Rachel's thoughts as she interacts with students, fellow teachers, her principal, and later her romantic interest as she tries to navigate the world despite being too much in her own head. Frequently, we go from Rachel's current view of events to her memories of the past, and it's a credit to Laurence's skill as a writer that it never gets confusing.
A very skillfully written stream of consciousness novel.
Laurence takes the reader very deep inside the mind of Rachel, a repressed single school teacher in her mid-thirties who cares for her ostensibly sick mother. Their relationship is complex to say the least. We are privy to a continuous stream of Rachel's thoughts as she interacts with students, fellow teachers, her principal, and later her romantic interest as she tries to navigate the world despite being too much in her own head. Frequently, we go from Rachel's current view of events to her memories of the past, and it's a credit to Laurence's skill as a writer that it never gets confusing.
A very skillfully written stream of consciousness novel.
July 6, 2008
I cannot praise this novel highly enough.
In a way, Margaret Laurence has crafted a mature coming of age story. Striving to send out the message, that it's not too late to be what you might of become earlier on in life. The protagonist featured in Laurence's stories of life in Manawaka, Canada, is Rachel, a spinster teacher who finds herself stuck in a middle some life, going nowhere. It isn't upon the introduction to newcomer, Nick, that Rachel embarks on a sexual initiation into the women that was long pronounced emotionally gone years ago. Rachel's life is suddenly turned around for the better, sense of humor always intact.
Margaret Laurence handles her protagonist with gentle care, respecting and encouraging her decisions. The town of Manawaka is too small for a woman as strong as Rachel, and it is her growth into adulthood that seals this novel with sentimentality and love.
In a way, Margaret Laurence has crafted a mature coming of age story. Striving to send out the message, that it's not too late to be what you might of become earlier on in life. The protagonist featured in Laurence's stories of life in Manawaka, Canada, is Rachel, a spinster teacher who finds herself stuck in a middle some life, going nowhere. It isn't upon the introduction to newcomer, Nick, that Rachel embarks on a sexual initiation into the women that was long pronounced emotionally gone years ago. Rachel's life is suddenly turned around for the better, sense of humor always intact.
Margaret Laurence handles her protagonist with gentle care, respecting and encouraging her decisions. The town of Manawaka is too small for a woman as strong as Rachel, and it is her growth into adulthood that seals this novel with sentimentality and love.
June 17, 2017
This is a very good, well-written novel with wonderful character development. It only seems dated perhaps in that sexual mores had not changed yet in this time period and in this small town -- which is one of the themes of the novel. But the inner life of this lonely 34-year-old woman is not dated, and her unarticulated emotions and feelings are easily understood. And, oh, those conversations she has with her mother! They are so real as to be almost painful. I look forward to reading more by Laurence one day.
August 7, 2025
Actual Rating: ★★★★½
The Jest of God was a powerful and emotional read. I really enjoyed it. This was my first book by Canadian author Margaret Laurence, and it definitely won’t be my last.
The story follows Rachel, a quiet schoolteacher living a very ordinary life, but inside, she has so many thoughts and feelings that she can’t always express. I loved how the book showed her inner world and how deeply human and real she felt.
Considering it was written in the 1960s, it felt very modern and forward-thinking. It talks about loneliness, freedom, and what it means to truly live for yourself—things that still matter today.
The Jest of God was a powerful and emotional read. I really enjoyed it. This was my first book by Canadian author Margaret Laurence, and it definitely won’t be my last.
The story follows Rachel, a quiet schoolteacher living a very ordinary life, but inside, she has so many thoughts and feelings that she can’t always express. I loved how the book showed her inner world and how deeply human and real she felt.
Considering it was written in the 1960s, it felt very modern and forward-thinking. It talks about loneliness, freedom, and what it means to truly live for yourself—things that still matter today.
May 10, 2020
This is one of those books that you could teach a class on, and read every 10 years and get something new from it every time you return.
Laurence is so wonderful at writing unhappy, prickly, unpleasant and completely relatable women. Here, we have a tight focus on the inner monologue of Rachel Cameron, 34, teaching grade two in the small town of Manawaka. Hoping to strike out on her own, Rachel was pulled home after two years of college when her father died. Ever since, she has lived with hypochondriac, master-of-the-guilt-trip mother, single and desperately unhappy.
Rachel is trapped in multiple prisons, some of her own making, and some thrust upon her. She hates her tall, gawky body. She hates growing close to a group of seven year olds, and then being pulled from their lives, forever more consigned to the awkward role of former teacher seen in public. She loves her mother, but hates her manipulation and constant scrutiny. She longs for love and friends, but lacks access to the kind of people she could truly connect with. Her inner thoughts are full of regret and the wish to do over everything - her praise to a favoured student, her apologies and capitulation to her mother, her prickly interactions with a fellow teacher who extends offers of friendship, but who Rachel faintly despises.
Rachel's troubles exist at the intersection of her own actions and society. Published in 1966, Rachel is just past the time where she would be called a spinster, but is where much of her dress and behaviour is tightly regulated. It would be unthinkable for a woman like her to abandon her ill and widowed mother and strike out on her own. She's not in a position to stand up to the Principal of her school, even though he condescends to her, and always contrives to speak to her standing while she is seated, because she's taller than him. When she starts going to movies with a former classmate who is back in town to visit his parents for the summer, she can't even call him on the phone, but must wait for him to call. So through fits and starts, Rachel tries to find her independence as best she can, much of it manifesting through prickliness and avoidance, even as she's filled with doubt and self-recrimination.
Despite Rachel's complexity, the novel is spare, with no wasted words or scenes. At just over 200 pages, Laurence takes us through Rachel's journey to understand and identify her prisons, and then to begin to break free of them. In an afterword to my edition, Margaret Atwood says the poles of this book are desperation and courage - desperation at the beginning and courage at the end.
And in all of this, Laurence manages to provide a beautiful sketch of a small prairie town, and the landscape surrounding it. The featurelessness of the prairie highlights Rachel's captivity and sense of being constantly observed, and even lush and sheltered groves by the river are never truly private.
This would be a wonderful book club choice. There's so much to learn about Rachel, and her relationships. With such a tight internal perspective, we come to know Rachel so intimately, and I think a lot of people will relate to and empathize with her in different ways. But this is worth picking up on it's own, even if you don't have a group of people to talk about it with.
Laurence is so wonderful at writing unhappy, prickly, unpleasant and completely relatable women. Here, we have a tight focus on the inner monologue of Rachel Cameron, 34, teaching grade two in the small town of Manawaka. Hoping to strike out on her own, Rachel was pulled home after two years of college when her father died. Ever since, she has lived with hypochondriac, master-of-the-guilt-trip mother, single and desperately unhappy.
Rachel is trapped in multiple prisons, some of her own making, and some thrust upon her. She hates her tall, gawky body. She hates growing close to a group of seven year olds, and then being pulled from their lives, forever more consigned to the awkward role of former teacher seen in public. She loves her mother, but hates her manipulation and constant scrutiny. She longs for love and friends, but lacks access to the kind of people she could truly connect with. Her inner thoughts are full of regret and the wish to do over everything - her praise to a favoured student, her apologies and capitulation to her mother, her prickly interactions with a fellow teacher who extends offers of friendship, but who Rachel faintly despises.
Rachel's troubles exist at the intersection of her own actions and society. Published in 1966, Rachel is just past the time where she would be called a spinster, but is where much of her dress and behaviour is tightly regulated. It would be unthinkable for a woman like her to abandon her ill and widowed mother and strike out on her own. She's not in a position to stand up to the Principal of her school, even though he condescends to her, and always contrives to speak to her standing while she is seated, because she's taller than him. When she starts going to movies with a former classmate who is back in town to visit his parents for the summer, she can't even call him on the phone, but must wait for him to call. So through fits and starts, Rachel tries to find her independence as best she can, much of it manifesting through prickliness and avoidance, even as she's filled with doubt and self-recrimination.
Despite Rachel's complexity, the novel is spare, with no wasted words or scenes. At just over 200 pages, Laurence takes us through Rachel's journey to understand and identify her prisons, and then to begin to break free of them. In an afterword to my edition, Margaret Atwood says the poles of this book are desperation and courage - desperation at the beginning and courage at the end.
And in all of this, Laurence manages to provide a beautiful sketch of a small prairie town, and the landscape surrounding it. The featurelessness of the prairie highlights Rachel's captivity and sense of being constantly observed, and even lush and sheltered groves by the river are never truly private.
This would be a wonderful book club choice. There's so much to learn about Rachel, and her relationships. With such a tight internal perspective, we come to know Rachel so intimately, and I think a lot of people will relate to and empathize with her in different ways. But this is worth picking up on it's own, even if you don't have a group of people to talk about it with.
August 22, 2022
Rachel Cameron is a single schoolteacher in her thirties living with her demanding and manipulative mother and seeing nothing else in her future, until she suddenly falls into an affair with a man from her past.
I loved many things about this book, but I struggled to believe in a few of the events, including the "speaking in tongues" and the coincidence at the doctor's near the end. But I did find Rachel a sadly believable character.
I loved many things about this book, but I struggled to believe in a few of the events, including the "speaking in tongues" and the coincidence at the doctor's near the end. But I did find Rachel a sadly believable character.
January 8, 2018
I got the curse this week. I was - of course- relieved. Who wouldn't be? Anyone would naturally be relieved, under the circumstances. It stands to reason. You hear of women waiting for it, and worrying incessantly, and then when it comes, they're released and everything is all right and that anxiety is over for the moment and for a while one need not think What would I do? What would become of me? I was terribly relieved. It was a relief, reprieve.
That is a lie, Rachel. That is really a lie, in the deepest way possible for anyone to lie.
No. Yes. Both are true. Does one have to choose between two realities? If you think you love two men, the heart-throb column in the daily paper used to say when I was still consulting it daily, then neither one is for you. If you think you contain two realities, perhaps you contain none.
If I had to choose between feelings, I know which it would be. But that would be a disaster, from every point of view except the most inner one, and if you choose that side, you would really be on your own, now and for ever, and that couldn't, I think, be borne, not by me.
Poor Rachel, always thinking and then backtracking and correcting her thinking, as though the expectations of Manawaka society in general and her mother in particular ought to have control even over her private thoughts. Ah, mothers and daughters. I have a mother and two daughters; I am a mother and a daughter. I don't have relationships as controlled or controlling as in A Jest of God, but do remember feeling the weight of unvoiced expectations when I was a teenager.
Originally titled A Jest of God, the edition I read had been renamed Rachel, Rachel. I can't find a reason for why it had been renamed (and I assume at some point the publishers reverted to the original title) but the original is much more fitting. The climax does indeed seem a jest of God Himself:
A Jest of God is a strong member of the Manawaka Sequence, not quite up to The Stone Angel or The Diviners, but since I can't bring myself to give it only 3 stars, the 4 will need to stand.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2012
I love Margaret Laurence. (I know I’m supposed to feel some ambivalence about her because she’s sometimes racist, and maybe classist, but for what it’s worth, I don’t care. Sometimes I wonder whether the politics of a writer can be left aside when considering the merits of the writing. We’ve been talking in class about this idea: whether because an author does terrible things in their work/public life, whether we then need to dismiss their writing because of their unsavory personal story. We concluded in class that, no, you can appreciate the writing while holding the author accountable for their public actions/beliefs. I don’t know if it’s the same when an author writes about their unsavoury ideas, but does so in a beautiful and compelling way.)
Not a problem in “Jest of God,” though. Margaret Laurence is paying attention to the mother-daughter relationship and the power a mother has over a daughter. Our protagonist, Rachel Cameron, is perhaps more anxious than I am (and that’s saying something these days) and her narrative reads painfully as we experience with her her (almost) never-ending monologues of self-doubt, anxiety and self-loathing. Her mother is such a horrible, horrible mother. And Rachel knows it! And the mother does, too! And the novel is more about how the two of them figure out how to make their relationship work. Sort of. It’s also about Rachel figuring out how to be in her own skin without feeling like her skin is crawling.
I appreciate the book for its merits: beautifully plotted, rich character development, haunting narrative voice. I can’t say I enjoyed it though, if only because Rachel’s anxiety was portrayed so well - and her narrative voice captivates that anxiety so well - that I found reading the novel more anxiety producing than relaxing. So I’d suggest this book only so long as you’re reading it safely on a beach somewhere and not, for instance, trying to get your own life sorted.
Not a problem in “Jest of God,” though. Margaret Laurence is paying attention to the mother-daughter relationship and the power a mother has over a daughter. Our protagonist, Rachel Cameron, is perhaps more anxious than I am (and that’s saying something these days) and her narrative reads painfully as we experience with her her (almost) never-ending monologues of self-doubt, anxiety and self-loathing. Her mother is such a horrible, horrible mother. And Rachel knows it! And the mother does, too! And the novel is more about how the two of them figure out how to make their relationship work. Sort of. It’s also about Rachel figuring out how to be in her own skin without feeling like her skin is crawling.
I appreciate the book for its merits: beautifully plotted, rich character development, haunting narrative voice. I can’t say I enjoyed it though, if only because Rachel’s anxiety was portrayed so well - and her narrative voice captivates that anxiety so well - that I found reading the novel more anxiety producing than relaxing. So I’d suggest this book only so long as you’re reading it safely on a beach somewhere and not, for instance, trying to get your own life sorted.
June 27, 2025
Langdradig en oubollig. de karaktertekeningen zijn wèl goed.
April 13, 2025
3.5/5 🌟
jadna Rejčel
jadna Rejčel
November 6, 2025
Review soon!
January 31, 2022
Der Manawaka-Zyklus (nach Wikipedia)
Der literarische Durchbruch gelang Laurence mit ihren späteren Romanen, die größtenteils in Kanada in der Gegend um ihren Geburtsort Neepawa spielen. Diese Romane werden bisweilen als „Manawaka-Serie“ bezeichnet. Die ersten drei Teile,
The Stone Angel (1964),
A Jest of God (1966) und
The Fire-Dwellers (1969) schrieb Laurence noch in England nach der Trennung von ihrem Ehemann. Eine breite Leserschaft erreichte sie in Kanada, wo sich Laurence mit der Trilogie als eine der bekanntesten Schriftstellerinnen etablierte. The Stone Angel ist bis heute ihr meistgelesenes Werk. 1974 wurde die Manawaka-Serie mit
The Diviners
abgeschlossen, ein Roman, der verschiedene Figuren aus den früheren Teilen aufgreift und als ihr ambitioniertestes Werk gilt. Weitere Romane veröffentlichte sie danach nicht mehr; sie beschränkte sich auf Essays und Kinderbücher.
Inhalt
Rachel Cameron stammt von schottischen Einwanderern ab, arbeitet als Lehrerin und lebt schon immer mit ihrer Mutter im ehemaligen Elternhaus. Eine Frau, die in Manawaka keinen Landwirt heiraten will, muss in eine größere Stadt ziehen oder bleibt lebenslang Single. Durch ihr Leben unter der Fuchtel einer manipulativen Mutter und weil sie ihren Heimatort nie verlassen hat, ist Rachel immer Kind geblieben. Ihre Mitmenschen haben wie sie die irritierende Angewohnheit, Gesagtes stets gleich wieder abzuwiegeln oder zurückzunehmen und – völlig logisch - von anderen zu erwarten, dass sie nicht meinen, was sie sagen. Auf mehreren Ebenen hat Rachel sich festgefahren, sie wagt weder eine Auseinandersetzung mit ihrer Mutter, noch mit ihrem Rektor, noch mit der leicht missionarischen und dabei herzensguten Kollegin Calla. Die Meisterin der Killerphrasen ermahnt sich selbst, dass wegen ihrer Mutter eben keine andere Lebensweise möglich ist.
Als Rachel einen ereignislosen Sommer vor sich hat, den sie vor sich selbst mit der angeschlagenen Gesundheit ihrer Mutter rechtfertigt, trifft sie Nick, der in der Schule im Jahrgang über ihr war. Nick hat Manawaka aus Gründen verlassen, die Rachel nur zu vertraut sind, und ist seitdem selten zu Besuch gekommen. Mit Nick und Rachel steht sich die unversöhnliche Spaltung im Ort gegenüber. Sein Vater kam aus der Ukraine und war Landwirt und Milchmann, der anfangs die Milch noch mit dem Pferdegespann ausfuhr. Einwanderer aus Schottland stellten natürlich etwas Besseres dar, so dass Rachel und ihre Schwester nicht mit Kindern aus ukrainischen Familien spielen durften. Mit einer zarten Liebe zu Nick keimt auch die Hoffnung in Rachel, dass Nick sie aus ihrem selbst konstruierten Gefängnis namens Provinz retten wird. Doch wie soll das gehen, wenn beide den Dingen stets verklausuliert ausweichen? Und was erwartet Rachel eigentlich von einem Partner, der ihr beim Rausgehen achtlos die Aufforderung hinwirft: Liebling, du kümmerst dich dann bitte darum, dass du nicht schwanger wirst.
Der 2. Band des Manawaka-Zyklus wirkt ungeheuer bedrückend, weil Rachel (völlig anders als die Figuren im „Steinernen Engel“) nie vom Weg zwischen Schule und Wohnung abweicht und jeden Kontakt brüsk abwehrt. Sie hat sich mit ihrem eingeschränkten Blickwinkel so festgefahren, dass ich mir nicht vorstellen konnte, wie Margaret Laurence ihre Figuren aus der Situation herausschreiben würde. Doch es kommt zu einer überraschenden Wende. Rückblickend können wir uns heute nur schwer vorstellen, dass es bei Erscheinen des Romans 1966 im ländlichen Kanada kein anderes Familienmodell gegeben haben sollte, als dass eine Lehrerin entweder allein blieb oder ihren Beruf aufgab, um einen Farmer zu heiraten.
Das Nachwort von Margaret Atwood (*1939) ordnet den Roman mit seiner Bedeutung für die kanadische Literatur ein. Als Atwood mit 27 Jahren das Buch erhielt, war Laurence eine der wenigen kanadischen Autorinnen überhaupt. Die jüngere Kollegin erkannte voller Ehrfurcht die Qualität des Textes und die Bedeutung des Stoffs für die Darstellung der Frauen- und Mutterrolle in der Literatur.
Der literarische Durchbruch gelang Laurence mit ihren späteren Romanen, die größtenteils in Kanada in der Gegend um ihren Geburtsort Neepawa spielen. Diese Romane werden bisweilen als „Manawaka-Serie“ bezeichnet. Die ersten drei Teile,
The Stone Angel (1964),
A Jest of God (1966) und
The Fire-Dwellers (1969) schrieb Laurence noch in England nach der Trennung von ihrem Ehemann. Eine breite Leserschaft erreichte sie in Kanada, wo sich Laurence mit der Trilogie als eine der bekanntesten Schriftstellerinnen etablierte. The Stone Angel ist bis heute ihr meistgelesenes Werk. 1974 wurde die Manawaka-Serie mit
The Diviners
abgeschlossen, ein Roman, der verschiedene Figuren aus den früheren Teilen aufgreift und als ihr ambitioniertestes Werk gilt. Weitere Romane veröffentlichte sie danach nicht mehr; sie beschränkte sich auf Essays und Kinderbücher.
Inhalt
Rachel Cameron stammt von schottischen Einwanderern ab, arbeitet als Lehrerin und lebt schon immer mit ihrer Mutter im ehemaligen Elternhaus. Eine Frau, die in Manawaka keinen Landwirt heiraten will, muss in eine größere Stadt ziehen oder bleibt lebenslang Single. Durch ihr Leben unter der Fuchtel einer manipulativen Mutter und weil sie ihren Heimatort nie verlassen hat, ist Rachel immer Kind geblieben. Ihre Mitmenschen haben wie sie die irritierende Angewohnheit, Gesagtes stets gleich wieder abzuwiegeln oder zurückzunehmen und – völlig logisch - von anderen zu erwarten, dass sie nicht meinen, was sie sagen. Auf mehreren Ebenen hat Rachel sich festgefahren, sie wagt weder eine Auseinandersetzung mit ihrer Mutter, noch mit ihrem Rektor, noch mit der leicht missionarischen und dabei herzensguten Kollegin Calla. Die Meisterin der Killerphrasen ermahnt sich selbst, dass wegen ihrer Mutter eben keine andere Lebensweise möglich ist.
Als Rachel einen ereignislosen Sommer vor sich hat, den sie vor sich selbst mit der angeschlagenen Gesundheit ihrer Mutter rechtfertigt, trifft sie Nick, der in der Schule im Jahrgang über ihr war. Nick hat Manawaka aus Gründen verlassen, die Rachel nur zu vertraut sind, und ist seitdem selten zu Besuch gekommen. Mit Nick und Rachel steht sich die unversöhnliche Spaltung im Ort gegenüber. Sein Vater kam aus der Ukraine und war Landwirt und Milchmann, der anfangs die Milch noch mit dem Pferdegespann ausfuhr. Einwanderer aus Schottland stellten natürlich etwas Besseres dar, so dass Rachel und ihre Schwester nicht mit Kindern aus ukrainischen Familien spielen durften. Mit einer zarten Liebe zu Nick keimt auch die Hoffnung in Rachel, dass Nick sie aus ihrem selbst konstruierten Gefängnis namens Provinz retten wird. Doch wie soll das gehen, wenn beide den Dingen stets verklausuliert ausweichen? Und was erwartet Rachel eigentlich von einem Partner, der ihr beim Rausgehen achtlos die Aufforderung hinwirft: Liebling, du kümmerst dich dann bitte darum, dass du nicht schwanger wirst.
Der 2. Band des Manawaka-Zyklus wirkt ungeheuer bedrückend, weil Rachel (völlig anders als die Figuren im „Steinernen Engel“) nie vom Weg zwischen Schule und Wohnung abweicht und jeden Kontakt brüsk abwehrt. Sie hat sich mit ihrem eingeschränkten Blickwinkel so festgefahren, dass ich mir nicht vorstellen konnte, wie Margaret Laurence ihre Figuren aus der Situation herausschreiben würde. Doch es kommt zu einer überraschenden Wende. Rückblickend können wir uns heute nur schwer vorstellen, dass es bei Erscheinen des Romans 1966 im ländlichen Kanada kein anderes Familienmodell gegeben haben sollte, als dass eine Lehrerin entweder allein blieb oder ihren Beruf aufgab, um einen Farmer zu heiraten.
Das Nachwort von Margaret Atwood (*1939) ordnet den Roman mit seiner Bedeutung für die kanadische Literatur ein. Als Atwood mit 27 Jahren das Buch erhielt, war Laurence eine der wenigen kanadischen Autorinnen überhaupt. Die jüngere Kollegin erkannte voller Ehrfurcht die Qualität des Textes und die Bedeutung des Stoffs für die Darstellung der Frauen- und Mutterrolle in der Literatur.
May 6, 2024
I appreciated the feverish musing and originality of “A Jest Of God”, 1966. Rachel is down to Earth but I can’t fathom anyone so self-doubting. I reject a languid demeanour, while one is raging over bothersome scenarios. Her mother isn’t outwardly dominating, thus I can’t fathom Rachel giving into baseless guilt trips. A thirty-four year-old need not apologize for walking to a store, accepting an outing with peers, nor promise to be brief.
Her mother’s guise of helplessness was most unrealistic of all, regarding serving sandwiches for card-playing cronies. She could serve them. It demonstrated the utmost selfishness to play a passive-aggressive game, knowing her daughter never entertained herself. Rachel’s reluctance to praise a pupil she adored baffled me. She especially should have reported her principal’s treatment of children.
Sexual exploits at last brought excitement to the story. Reluctance to be seen, or copulate outdoors was valid. Decency is paramount to a schoolteacher. A boyfriend should certainly offer a partner closure.
This character lost my respect, by presuming her beau had a wife and child without requesting this vital clarification. With herself vulnerable and a life and death situation looming, timidity about checking with him or his parents was nonsense.
No sociological attitude’s century or decade ever excuses putting a life at stake. I wash my hands of anyone who deems public opinion more important than that! Rachel only became real when she sought nightcap advice from her neighbour. It was the only time she chatted like an adult.
To suddenly be unwaveringly firm with her Mother about moving near her Sister, was too rash a change in personality. Moving is an important step that has to be discussed both ways. It is here, that the fair course would be to prepare her mother, prioritize her feelings, and her peace.
Her mother’s guise of helplessness was most unrealistic of all, regarding serving sandwiches for card-playing cronies. She could serve them. It demonstrated the utmost selfishness to play a passive-aggressive game, knowing her daughter never entertained herself. Rachel’s reluctance to praise a pupil she adored baffled me. She especially should have reported her principal’s treatment of children.
Sexual exploits at last brought excitement to the story. Reluctance to be seen, or copulate outdoors was valid. Decency is paramount to a schoolteacher. A boyfriend should certainly offer a partner closure.
This character lost my respect, by presuming her beau had a wife and child without requesting this vital clarification. With herself vulnerable and a life and death situation looming, timidity about checking with him or his parents was nonsense.
No sociological attitude’s century or decade ever excuses putting a life at stake. I wash my hands of anyone who deems public opinion more important than that! Rachel only became real when she sought nightcap advice from her neighbour. It was the only time she chatted like an adult.
To suddenly be unwaveringly firm with her Mother about moving near her Sister, was too rash a change in personality. Moving is an important step that has to be discussed both ways. It is here, that the fair course would be to prepare her mother, prioritize her feelings, and her peace.
January 19, 2012
I was raised in the US and had little introduction to Laurence except through the Diviners, which I remembered primarily because of the sperm stain on the woman's dress. (I led a sheltered life and was shocked about that). And when I read The Stone Angel, I was too young to appreciate the feelings therein. And, sorry to say, high school English ruined it for me.
This book I picked up because the woman in it is at a phase of her life I could identify with entirely. Rachel Cameron is trapped, totally trapped, in a life of service and guilt and concealment. It's so small town Ontario...Still, she finds rewards in her life, and eventually opens herself - only to experience additional challenges.
It's not a comfortable book. I feel so for Rachel. The scenes with her mother run right to my spine, as her mother passively-aggressively ruins her life. They are underwritten - not heavy handed at all, but the chills are there as her mother says "Don't be late, will you, dear?". Little tendrils of control.
I'm so glad I read this. It is beautiful, and written by a master. It's given me a new appreciation for Laurence after the high school destruction. I'm off to reread the others now.
This book I picked up because the woman in it is at a phase of her life I could identify with entirely. Rachel Cameron is trapped, totally trapped, in a life of service and guilt and concealment. It's so small town Ontario...Still, she finds rewards in her life, and eventually opens herself - only to experience additional challenges.
It's not a comfortable book. I feel so for Rachel. The scenes with her mother run right to my spine, as her mother passively-aggressively ruins her life. They are underwritten - not heavy handed at all, but the chills are there as her mother says "Don't be late, will you, dear?". Little tendrils of control.
I'm so glad I read this. It is beautiful, and written by a master. It's given me a new appreciation for Laurence after the high school destruction. I'm off to reread the others now.
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