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As for Me and My House
“It’s an immense night out there, wheeling and windy. The lights on the street and in the houses against the black wetness, little unilluminating glints that might be painted on it. The town seems huddled together, cowering on a high tiny perch, afraid to move lest it topple into the wind.”
The town is Horizon, the setting of Sinclair Ross’ brilliant classic study of life in the Depression era. Hailed by critics as one of Canada’s great novels, As For Me and My House takes the form of a journal. The unnamed diarist, one of the most complex and arresting characters in contemporary fiction, explores the bittersweet nature of human relationships, of the unspoken bonds that tie people together, and the undercurrents of feeling that often tear them apart. Her chronicle creates an intense atmosphere, rich with observed detail and natural imagery.
As For Me and My House is a landmark work. It is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the scope and power of the Canadian novel.
The town is Horizon, the setting of Sinclair Ross’ brilliant classic study of life in the Depression era. Hailed by critics as one of Canada’s great novels, As For Me and My House takes the form of a journal. The unnamed diarist, one of the most complex and arresting characters in contemporary fiction, explores the bittersweet nature of human relationships, of the unspoken bonds that tie people together, and the undercurrents of feeling that often tear them apart. Her chronicle creates an intense atmosphere, rich with observed detail and natural imagery.
As For Me and My House is a landmark work. It is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the scope and power of the Canadian novel.
221 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
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1649 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews
September 1, 2018
"It's an immense night out there, wheeling and windy. The lights on the street and in the houses against the black wetness, little unilluminating glints that might be painted on it. The town seems huddled together, cowering on a high tiny perch, afraid to move lest it topple into the wind . . ."
An amazing Canadian novel from 1941, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE has been growing in stature for over 75 years. Told (small spoiler: not entirely "reliably" as it turns out) by an impoverished minister's wife in a Saskatchewan hamlet in the 1930s, it contains a hardscrabble look at Prairie Province (part of Great Plains) life in the Thirties. Unfortunately, the novel was not published until 1941 when Canada was already at war and in the USA, literary taste had moved from the sociological to the confessional. Never mind that, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE is a great book and should be read -- more than once is best. Subtle, heartbreaking and yes, at times a little grueling -- but well worth it for all that.
Something I had neglected to mention when I originally reviewed this book: although this novel is set in Canada (Saskatchewan, "Canada's Breadbasket"), it does not dwell on its Canadian-ness. Thus references to institutions like the Social Credit Party or pooled grain elevators don't come into play. It could just about as easily have taken place in the Dakotas, say.
NOTE: The title of this very worthy novel comes from the Bible, Joshua 24:15 -- ". . . as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Update: September 1, 2018
An amazing Canadian novel from 1941, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE has been growing in stature for over 75 years. Told (small spoiler: not entirely "reliably" as it turns out) by an impoverished minister's wife in a Saskatchewan hamlet in the 1930s, it contains a hardscrabble look at Prairie Province (part of Great Plains) life in the Thirties. Unfortunately, the novel was not published until 1941 when Canada was already at war and in the USA, literary taste had moved from the sociological to the confessional. Never mind that, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE is a great book and should be read -- more than once is best. Subtle, heartbreaking and yes, at times a little grueling -- but well worth it for all that.
Something I had neglected to mention when I originally reviewed this book: although this novel is set in Canada (Saskatchewan, "Canada's Breadbasket"), it does not dwell on its Canadian-ness. Thus references to institutions like the Social Credit Party or pooled grain elevators don't come into play. It could just about as easily have taken place in the Dakotas, say.
NOTE: The title of this very worthy novel comes from the Bible, Joshua 24:15 -- ". . . as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Update: September 1, 2018
November 8, 2021
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. – Joshua 24:15
*****
While doing some research on another book and its author, I ran across a rather famous novel, Who Has Seen the Wind, by W.O. Mitchell, that is set in Saskatchewan during the 30s. I discovered that it has been taught for years in Canadian schools and universities, but in my ignorance I had never even heard of the writer or his book.
I liked the book and it led me to another novel also set in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. That happened when I ran across a review of Who Has Seen the Wind, one that was written by Craig MacBride and was published in the Toronto Review of Books.
MacBride wrote:
"Published in 1947, W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind arrived six years after As for Me and My House, Sinclair Ross’s Prairie-based depression trigger, and it has the same message as its predecessor: people die, you never find God, and crops always fail."
But what really caught my eye was this:
"Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, as As for Me and My House is perfect, but it is excellent…."
I agree with MacBride that Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, but is very good. What really grabbed my attention, however, was his claim that As for Me and My House is perfect. And that’s how I stumbled onto another well-known Canadian author who wrote a book that has been studied in Canadian schools and universities that I should have known about, but didn’t. I ordered the book even before I finished reading MacBride’s review.
But do I think that it is perfect? Well, more about that later.
One of the things that piqued my curiosity, besides the claim that it was a perfect novel, was that As for Me and My House is told entirely through the entries that a minister’s wife makes in her diary. I have always liked epistolary novels if they are well-done and telling the story through the writings of a diarist would be similar.
We know her only as Mrs. Bentley for she never reveals her first name or her maiden name and not much of anything about her past before she married Phillip Bentley. However, she describes in detail Phillip’s unhappy early life and upbringing.
The story opens with the Bentleys moving into a house located in Horizon, Saskatchewan. Phillip is a Protestant minister, and this is the fourth church and small town for them during twelve years of marriage. From the beginning, Mrs. Bentley lets us know through her diary entries that neither she nor her husband are satisfied with the lives they lead in small towns in which they are constantly scrutinized, commented on, and criticized by members of their congregations. Furthermore, the marriage is not a happy one.
Phillip is a preacher who has lost his calling, if he ever had one. He has some talent as a painter and sketch artist, but not for preaching or all that goes with the job – and job is all that it is to him. He would like to be an artist, but it is extremely difficult for an individual to make a living as a painter even in normal times, and this is the Great Depression, with all that entails. Phillip and his wife barely survive on what their congregations can afford to pay them, but at least they can survive.
Mrs. Bentley is frustrated too, for she has a repressed talent as well. Before her marriage she had dreams of becoming a concert pianist. She sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists who are unable to pursue their passions.
As for Me and My House is not a perfect novel. The problem, as I see it, is that we learn about only one side of this troubled marriage and that is the wife’s side, because the story is told entirely through her diary. Furthermore, she is an unreliable narrator which adds even more ambiguity. We know exactly how she views things, but all we know about Phillip’s views are what she says they are. Rarely does he express them and then only as his wife describes them in her diary.
It is true that the unreliability of the narrator and the ambiguity that results has provoked much discussion, speculation, and argument about the book. At times when I was reading it I even wondered if I liked the book at all. In fact, I’m going to withhold a rating until I have given it more thought.
True, it is not a perfect book, but I do think it is a worthwhile read, especially for Mrs. Bentley’s lyrical descriptions of the Great Plains and the natural forces that make it the unique region that it is. In fact, in these passages Mrs. Bentley proves that in addition to being a talented pianist she missed another calling; she should have been a writer.
*****
While doing some research on another book and its author, I ran across a rather famous novel, Who Has Seen the Wind, by W.O. Mitchell, that is set in Saskatchewan during the 30s. I discovered that it has been taught for years in Canadian schools and universities, but in my ignorance I had never even heard of the writer or his book.
I liked the book and it led me to another novel also set in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. That happened when I ran across a review of Who Has Seen the Wind, one that was written by Craig MacBride and was published in the Toronto Review of Books.
MacBride wrote:
"Published in 1947, W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind arrived six years after As for Me and My House, Sinclair Ross’s Prairie-based depression trigger, and it has the same message as its predecessor: people die, you never find God, and crops always fail."
But what really caught my eye was this:
"Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, as As for Me and My House is perfect, but it is excellent…."
I agree with MacBride that Who Has Seen the Wind is not perfect, but is very good. What really grabbed my attention, however, was his claim that As for Me and My House is perfect. And that’s how I stumbled onto another well-known Canadian author who wrote a book that has been studied in Canadian schools and universities that I should have known about, but didn’t. I ordered the book even before I finished reading MacBride’s review.
But do I think that it is perfect? Well, more about that later.
One of the things that piqued my curiosity, besides the claim that it was a perfect novel, was that As for Me and My House is told entirely through the entries that a minister’s wife makes in her diary. I have always liked epistolary novels if they are well-done and telling the story through the writings of a diarist would be similar.
We know her only as Mrs. Bentley for she never reveals her first name or her maiden name and not much of anything about her past before she married Phillip Bentley. However, she describes in detail Phillip’s unhappy early life and upbringing.
The story opens with the Bentleys moving into a house located in Horizon, Saskatchewan. Phillip is a Protestant minister, and this is the fourth church and small town for them during twelve years of marriage. From the beginning, Mrs. Bentley lets us know through her diary entries that neither she nor her husband are satisfied with the lives they lead in small towns in which they are constantly scrutinized, commented on, and criticized by members of their congregations. Furthermore, the marriage is not a happy one.
Phillip is a preacher who has lost his calling, if he ever had one. He has some talent as a painter and sketch artist, but not for preaching or all that goes with the job – and job is all that it is to him. He would like to be an artist, but it is extremely difficult for an individual to make a living as a painter even in normal times, and this is the Great Depression, with all that entails. Phillip and his wife barely survive on what their congregations can afford to pay them, but at least they can survive.
Mrs. Bentley is frustrated too, for she has a repressed talent as well. Before her marriage she had dreams of becoming a concert pianist. She sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists who are unable to pursue their passions.
As for Me and My House is not a perfect novel. The problem, as I see it, is that we learn about only one side of this troubled marriage and that is the wife’s side, because the story is told entirely through her diary. Furthermore, she is an unreliable narrator which adds even more ambiguity. We know exactly how she views things, but all we know about Phillip’s views are what she says they are. Rarely does he express them and then only as his wife describes them in her diary.
It is true that the unreliability of the narrator and the ambiguity that results has provoked much discussion, speculation, and argument about the book. At times when I was reading it I even wondered if I liked the book at all. In fact, I’m going to withhold a rating until I have given it more thought.
True, it is not a perfect book, but I do think it is a worthwhile read, especially for Mrs. Bentley’s lyrical descriptions of the Great Plains and the natural forces that make it the unique region that it is. In fact, in these passages Mrs. Bentley proves that in addition to being a talented pianist she missed another calling; she should have been a writer.
August 5, 2008
I would rather poke my eyes out with a rusty needle than read this again.
March 20, 2021
"But a man's tragedy is himself, not the events that overtake him".
Or in modern terms, "Where ever you go, there you are".
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the theme of this book in a nutshell. It applies to both the man and the woman in this tale of one year in the marriage of the Bentleys, a minister and his wife who come to the prairie town of Horizon, Saskatchewan, a bleak and depressing place to be even in good years, but especially so in 1933. He is a minister who doesn't want to be one, and also a failed artist who never followed his dream. She gave up a promising career as a pianist to cater to his whims and moods. There was a stillborn child early in the marriage, then nothing. The book is written in diary form by Mrs. Bentley, who doesn't even think enough of herself to let us know her first name. The Parsonage is tiny, dark and ugly. The townspeople are small-minded busybodies who watch their every move and resent any money they might spend to make their lives there nicer or more comfortable.
I started the book thinking that surely this situation couldn't continue, something would happen, and it did. Several things in fact, turning the whole tale into more of a runaway train than an acknowledged classic of Canadian literature, as it is descibed in the introduction. I was hard pressed to decide just which of them I disliked most. The husband was moody, nasty, withholding affection, cold and distant, even on his best days. The wife was so besotted with him that she explained it all away because of his artistic temperament. I wanted to smack them both. I did like the dog though. The conclusion left me confused, but with little hope for either of them. I refer you back to my first sentence of this review.
I will say however, that it was beautifully written, especially the depiction of the prairie itself. I generally like Canadian literature, so persevered to the end.
Or in modern terms, "Where ever you go, there you are".
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the theme of this book in a nutshell. It applies to both the man and the woman in this tale of one year in the marriage of the Bentleys, a minister and his wife who come to the prairie town of Horizon, Saskatchewan, a bleak and depressing place to be even in good years, but especially so in 1933. He is a minister who doesn't want to be one, and also a failed artist who never followed his dream. She gave up a promising career as a pianist to cater to his whims and moods. There was a stillborn child early in the marriage, then nothing. The book is written in diary form by Mrs. Bentley, who doesn't even think enough of herself to let us know her first name. The Parsonage is tiny, dark and ugly. The townspeople are small-minded busybodies who watch their every move and resent any money they might spend to make their lives there nicer or more comfortable.
I started the book thinking that surely this situation couldn't continue, something would happen, and it did. Several things in fact, turning the whole tale into more of a runaway train than an acknowledged classic of Canadian literature, as it is descibed in the introduction. I was hard pressed to decide just which of them I disliked most. The husband was moody, nasty, withholding affection, cold and distant, even on his best days. The wife was so besotted with him that she explained it all away because of his artistic temperament. I wanted to smack them both. I did like the dog though. The conclusion left me confused, but with little hope for either of them. I refer you back to my first sentence of this review.
I will say however, that it was beautifully written, especially the depiction of the prairie itself. I generally like Canadian literature, so persevered to the end.
April 13, 2010
Not a book that most adolescents would enjoy, but my favourite Canadian novel. An overlooked classic that deserves more attention internationally. Yes, it's bleak, but it's gloriously bleak.
January 17, 2009
This wonderful book was such a surprise to me. It was assigned reading in a university Canadian literature course, and although my friends disliked it, I loved it. The bleak prairie town in which the pastor and his wife settle, the emotionally-distant pastor, his pent-up wife, the disapproving townspeople - they all appealed to the inner desire I have to see what it would be like to live in the middle of the prairies, bleak in winter, hay-filled in summer. It was written with imagination and passion and, I suspect, with someone raised within strict confines. One of my very favourite books.
April 22, 2025
Sinclair Ross' 1941 novel As For Me and My House thematically and contents wise covers both the ravages of Canadian prairie weather during the Great Depression (with snowstorms, sandstorms, droughts etc. but with sadly no to all least hardly any rain) and also the Bentleys' failed marriage (and thus equally their failed lives). And written as a series of diary entries over thirteen months, Sinclair Ross has Mrs. Bentley (and her first name actually never appears in As For Me and My House) writing about her joylessly bleak existence as a discontented minister's wife. But while what is being textually presented by Sinclair Ross in As For Me and My House is interesting, descriptive and nicely moodily brooding, I do especially as an older adult reader occasionally find it rather strange to have a male author writing as a woman in the first person and I am thus not always entirely sure whether Mrs. Bentley sounds completely and authentically like a woman would and/or should in As For Me and My House (although to be honest, I did not actually notice and pay any attention to this when we read As For Me and My House in grade eleven English in 1983 but I do notice this just a wee and tiny bit in 2025).
Now As For Me and My House starts with the Bentleys arriving in Horizon, Saskatchewan, their fourth small prairie town in twelve years, with Philip being a failed painter and Protestant minister, even though he actually does not believe in God, and Mrs. Bentley trying to be and rather unsuccessfully so a devoted minister’s wife after being forced to abandon her dreams of becoming a professional pianist. And yes, As For Me and My House shows that Philip and Mrs. Bentley both absolutely hate the church and the small opinionatedly judgmental Canadian prairie towns they are forced to endure and that this also makes them despise each other (and with Mrs. Bentley also being described by Sinclair Ross' words as feeling unworthy as a wife and as a woman because the one time she got pregnant the baby was stillborn). But indeed, while there are many horrifying, many painful and uncomfortable episodes and scenarios being shown and described by Mrs. Bentley's diary entries in As For Me and My House in kind of almost a list of pain and suffering, they are all told flatly in a monotone voice of quiet desperation, so that there is little to no emotion, no dramatics, no excitement at all in to be textually seen and encountered in As For Me and My House.
Add to this the Great Depression prairie weather (see above as to what this entails) and we as readers end up with a very tense and uncomfortable textual experience with As For Me and My House (with especially the relentless wind of the Great Depression era of the 1930s being shown as mercilessly blowing seeds off the farmers' fields, destroying, removing the soil, trapping Mrs. Bentley in her hated house, filling everything with dust and sand). And while As For Me and My House is thus and certainly not meant to be cheerful, Sinclair Ross' text and his descriptively realistic as well as imaginative and visually stunning sense of time, place and understated emotion absorbs and takes us as readers into a world of failed lives, abandoned dreams, prairie wind and resentment, into something that is both interesting, is both glorious and also at the same painfully textually uncomfortable (and also a solidly four star reading experience for me both in 1983 and equally so in 2025).
Now As For Me and My House starts with the Bentleys arriving in Horizon, Saskatchewan, their fourth small prairie town in twelve years, with Philip being a failed painter and Protestant minister, even though he actually does not believe in God, and Mrs. Bentley trying to be and rather unsuccessfully so a devoted minister’s wife after being forced to abandon her dreams of becoming a professional pianist. And yes, As For Me and My House shows that Philip and Mrs. Bentley both absolutely hate the church and the small opinionatedly judgmental Canadian prairie towns they are forced to endure and that this also makes them despise each other (and with Mrs. Bentley also being described by Sinclair Ross' words as feeling unworthy as a wife and as a woman because the one time she got pregnant the baby was stillborn). But indeed, while there are many horrifying, many painful and uncomfortable episodes and scenarios being shown and described by Mrs. Bentley's diary entries in As For Me and My House in kind of almost a list of pain and suffering, they are all told flatly in a monotone voice of quiet desperation, so that there is little to no emotion, no dramatics, no excitement at all in to be textually seen and encountered in As For Me and My House.
Add to this the Great Depression prairie weather (see above as to what this entails) and we as readers end up with a very tense and uncomfortable textual experience with As For Me and My House (with especially the relentless wind of the Great Depression era of the 1930s being shown as mercilessly blowing seeds off the farmers' fields, destroying, removing the soil, trapping Mrs. Bentley in her hated house, filling everything with dust and sand). And while As For Me and My House is thus and certainly not meant to be cheerful, Sinclair Ross' text and his descriptively realistic as well as imaginative and visually stunning sense of time, place and understated emotion absorbs and takes us as readers into a world of failed lives, abandoned dreams, prairie wind and resentment, into something that is both interesting, is both glorious and also at the same painfully textually uncomfortable (and also a solidly four star reading experience for me both in 1983 and equally so in 2025).
July 18, 2012
What can I say, Ross's writing is absolutely amazing. The character of Mrs.Bentley is one of the most complex, layered and interesting I've seen in a long while. Oh Mrs.Bentley, I still don't know what to make of you after having finished this book.The novel is set in the prairies during the depression and written in diary entries from her point of view.
She is certainly not a reliable narrator, but at the same time, she has moments of such lucidity that it makes you wonder if she's really just deceiving herself. That as she says in the beginning: that she is putting up a false front, not just to the town or us the reader, but to herself as well. The very ideas she puts up are a cover for things she dare not admit even to herself, because she feels that her very being is at stake. That which she knows (and what she claims to know but has no way of accessing) and tries to omit, will somehow not exist should she not acknowledge it.
I do feel sorry for Philip, but not in that he's married to "that woman". He chose and continues to choose to be with her.
She is certainly not a reliable narrator, but at the same time, she has moments of such lucidity that it makes you wonder if she's really just deceiving herself. That as she says in the beginning: that she is putting up a false front, not just to the town or us the reader, but to herself as well. The very ideas she puts up are a cover for things she dare not admit even to herself, because she feels that her very being is at stake. That which she knows (and what she claims to know but has no way of accessing) and tries to omit, will somehow not exist should she not acknowledge it.
I do feel sorry for Philip, but not in that he's married to "that woman". He chose and continues to choose to be with her.
July 17, 2017
i hated this book so fucking much omg
GOOD GOD. THAT WAS ALMOST PHYSICALLY PAINFUL TO READ. Nope. Scratch that. This WAS physically painful to read. This book is The Actual Worst.
May 12, 2012
I hated the mandatory high school short story "The White Door" by Sinclair Ross - so dreary, boring and Canadian - ECK
In my early twenties a colleague heard me complain about the experience & thrust Sinclair's only novel into my hand and said I must read it.
I've come to think the older you are the more value, insights and enjoyment you get from this novel. This is my second read and I'm staggered to realize that on this time through I am older than the two main characters. I have a far greater understanding on the nuances between a couple who've been together for 10 years - silences - joy - unavailability.
Sinclair's language and descriptions of the prairie are unique and have a dream like quality. They remind me so clearly of summer camping on Alberta prairie, those wide skies.
And while the story is firmly grounded in desperation, solitude and a sense of hopelessness the novel doesn't drag you down. The language, that complex wife & husband relationship and the house itself all bring you along on their story of small town Canadian life and new horizons.
January 17, 2019
Upon this re-read three decades later, I was put off by the near-Gothic over-the-topness of this novel. A desperately unhappy preacher and his wife, equally miserable, project on and withhold from each other in the crappiest ways imaginable and—heaven forbid—are actually allowed near children. And the prairie town’s buildings have evil false fronts, evil I tell you, and the manse is a cramped, leaky prison and the wind and rain are also evil and those false fronts and that prison and the wind and the rain and those false—just shoot me now!
June 9, 2011
If the Little House on the Prairie books had been written in Canada, geared towards adults who enjoy being depressed.
November 30, 2019
this book came into my home and beat me up, then ate all my groceries and left. a must-read
May 1, 2017
Upon reflection I have decided to bump up to a full 5 stars, YAY!
This is a 1.00 a.m review so..............
First off let me say that I am just shocked by the depth of which the MC is written by.
It's a female lead and her personality is one that you mostly see the extreme version of in today's literature/arts, not so much in past ones. It's the same shock I got when I read East of Eden and encountered a certain character that displayed characteristics that I honestly thought just become prevalent now. There's a part of your brain that just goes, "Whoa, that was there even back then?!"
This book doesn't really have a plot nor is it a character driven book. In fact, nothing much happens other then ordinary life events (well ordinary for the 30's) during the depression. The book is literally a women recording the events of her life for around a year and yet it tells so much more.
Such a flawed unreliable narrator and we never even learn her name which makes sense as this book is technically her diary so why would she mention her name? But the lack of inputting a name reveals something else too. This diary should probably be rewritten as, An Ode of Phillip.
In other words, the unnamed wife of the Pastor Phillip dedicates her entire world to her husband. Yet it's not spousal obedience, it's obsession. The Mrs. has revolved her entire life and purpose around him. He is the centre of her focus. She wants his attention and affection. Yet it's not portrayed in a creepy "I must have you" way. It's very subtle and mostly revealed in her diary. There is a part of her that wants his attention. A part that wants to control him and a part that fears him a little. She is in no way a reliable narrator. You cannot take what she sees and thinks as what actual happened. And yet, although she is happy trying to vie for him she is fully aware that it will probably never be a game she wins. She is fully aware of her obsession and knows it's not good nor right. She is fully aware that her husband does not and will not include her in his life. After all she is a women, she would never be included in her husbands private fears. She knows all this. She hates it but knows that nothing she can do will get him to change. Rather, she does her best to create a world for him to come to when his breaks down. MC is also one of artistic temperament. She often laments upon her decision to give up her career as a pianist. She had the skills yet gave it all up for her husband. Now, there is the sense of artistic failure that always pops up whenever she breaks down. In a way, this obsession for him may be something that all wives during the 30's felt. The need to have their existence validated. Their need to please others in hopes of having someone return the favour.
Overall, she is a very interesting character and I am amazed by the level of depth Ross went into her especially considering it was in the 40's/ 50's when he wrote this book.
Moving on to Phillip. Based on what I told you about him from his wife's POV you might hate him. Yet, he is not entirely to be hated. He had a rough upbringing that always placed him on the outside of society, never to be included and he carries that grudge against the people with him and lets it taint everything and one around him. He is also a pastor who does not believe in god. He hates this hypocrisy but he has no other options (in his opinion). It constantly plagues him and he is always trying to put up walls to keep people from finding out. He hates his dependence on the Church but again, feels like he had no other options. Like his wife, he too is one of artistic temperament. He is obsessed with painting. So much obsession that he has developed artist block for quiet some time now. He is by nature distant from people. He spends all his free time in his study. He never physically, verbally, emotionally, or, mentally abuses his wife but his distance from her is destroying her but he doesn't know it or chooses to ignore it.
It's kind of like two people who cannot stand each other yet also know that they are dependent on each other. There is a constant air of strain amplified by the house they live in and the stress of depression. It vocalizes more then is said.
It's kind of hard to point in words what this book is about because it's definitely something that needs to be read to be understood. It's a really great book to analyze and if anyone is interested in discussing this book please feel free to send a message.
This is a 1.00 a.m review so..............
First off let me say that I am just shocked by the depth of which the MC is written by.
It's a female lead and her personality is one that you mostly see the extreme version of in today's literature/arts, not so much in past ones. It's the same shock I got when I read East of Eden and encountered a certain character that displayed characteristics that I honestly thought just become prevalent now. There's a part of your brain that just goes, "Whoa, that was there even back then?!"
This book doesn't really have a plot nor is it a character driven book. In fact, nothing much happens other then ordinary life events (well ordinary for the 30's) during the depression. The book is literally a women recording the events of her life for around a year and yet it tells so much more.
Such a flawed unreliable narrator and we never even learn her name which makes sense as this book is technically her diary so why would she mention her name? But the lack of inputting a name reveals something else too. This diary should probably be rewritten as, An Ode of Phillip.
In other words, the unnamed wife of the Pastor Phillip dedicates her entire world to her husband. Yet it's not spousal obedience, it's obsession. The Mrs. has revolved her entire life and purpose around him. He is the centre of her focus. She wants his attention and affection. Yet it's not portrayed in a creepy "I must have you" way. It's very subtle and mostly revealed in her diary. There is a part of her that wants his attention. A part that wants to control him and a part that fears him a little. She is in no way a reliable narrator. You cannot take what she sees and thinks as what actual happened. And yet, although she is happy trying to vie for him she is fully aware that it will probably never be a game she wins. She is fully aware of her obsession and knows it's not good nor right. She is fully aware that her husband does not and will not include her in his life. After all she is a women, she would never be included in her husbands private fears. She knows all this. She hates it but knows that nothing she can do will get him to change. Rather, she does her best to create a world for him to come to when his breaks down. MC is also one of artistic temperament. She often laments upon her decision to give up her career as a pianist. She had the skills yet gave it all up for her husband. Now, there is the sense of artistic failure that always pops up whenever she breaks down. In a way, this obsession for him may be something that all wives during the 30's felt. The need to have their existence validated. Their need to please others in hopes of having someone return the favour.
Overall, she is a very interesting character and I am amazed by the level of depth Ross went into her especially considering it was in the 40's/ 50's when he wrote this book.
Moving on to Phillip. Based on what I told you about him from his wife's POV you might hate him. Yet, he is not entirely to be hated. He had a rough upbringing that always placed him on the outside of society, never to be included and he carries that grudge against the people with him and lets it taint everything and one around him. He is also a pastor who does not believe in god. He hates this hypocrisy but he has no other options (in his opinion). It constantly plagues him and he is always trying to put up walls to keep people from finding out. He hates his dependence on the Church but again, feels like he had no other options. Like his wife, he too is one of artistic temperament. He is obsessed with painting. So much obsession that he has developed artist block for quiet some time now. He is by nature distant from people. He spends all his free time in his study. He never physically, verbally, emotionally, or, mentally abuses his wife but his distance from her is destroying her but he doesn't know it or chooses to ignore it.
It's kind of like two people who cannot stand each other yet also know that they are dependent on each other. There is a constant air of strain amplified by the house they live in and the stress of depression. It vocalizes more then is said.
It's kind of hard to point in words what this book is about because it's definitely something that needs to be read to be understood. It's a really great book to analyze and if anyone is interested in discussing this book please feel free to send a message.
November 13, 2008
"As for Me and My House" is a story that takes place on the Canadian Plains during the Depression. A preacher's wife is the narrator and protagonist of the novel, writing her diary entries during a year in a small town of Horizon. While the description of the elemental hardships and encompassing wind are beautiful, it does not redeem the novel. It goes from boring, to depressing, to disappointing, to a final throw down of the book upon the table after I forced myself to read all 230-odd pages of the book. I would say that if you liked "My Antonia" by Willia Cather, you might get more out of the novel than I did. I found that the woman (who is never really named) was weak and hollow and the husband was petulant and moody and not in the cute EMO way either.
Read it if you must.
Read it if you must.
June 29, 2012
I read this book originally in grade 12 with an incredible Canadian Literature teacher. He made this solemn, still-seeming novel into something intricate and mysterious. He suggested the possibilities of Mrs. Bentley as an orchestrator of all the events of the novel, he made this simple book into an extraordinary complex novel with incredible imagery, symbolism, and hidden possibilities that are not immediately obvious.
I read it again 2 years later at the university level, and although I'm still amazed by Mrs. Bentley, her role and influence within the plot seemed perhaps more obvious, and also more uncertain.
I read it again 2 years later at the university level, and although I'm still amazed by Mrs. Bentley, her role and influence within the plot seemed perhaps more obvious, and also more uncertain.
September 30, 2019
For over two hundred and thirty pages Ross illustrates the slow, painful disintegration of a marriage in a small town somewhere in Canada. If your wife ever plans on divorcing you for sleeping with her younger sister in Mexico after video footage of your vacation surfaces on the internet, just get her to read this novel. Then you can be like, "See babe. We're not so bad . . ."
August 11, 2018
As one of the saddest books I've ever read, this one had me quite eager to get to the last chapter and end the pain. Not the pain of a bad book but the pain of a tormented main character, one so terribly inconsequential in her own mind that she never even gives us that most basic and personal piece of information about herself, a name. She remains throughout the book just her husband's wife, Mrs.
Mr. and Mrs. Bentley have just relocated to an unpromising little prairie town called Horizon, where he will be the pastor of a small church. The unfortunate thing (actually one of many) is that this particular minister of the gospel doesn't believe in God and hates standing in the pulpit every Sunday and lying. He does it only to earn a living, and because he doesn't have the courage to be what he wants - and has the talent - to be, an artist.
Their new town is miserably cold and barren in winter, miserably hot and barren in summer; the church members are judgmental, unkind people who rarely think of anyone but themselves except as topics for gossip; and the house provided as part of his painfully insufficient wage package is small, dilapidated and unattractive. This turns out to be a perfect setting for the excruciatingly strained relationship between the two of them. I know it sounds like I must be exaggerating, but it really is that bad. Again, not the book, but the situation.
The writing is good, the characters credible and the situation truer to life than is altogether comfortable. There were a couple of times when reading it that I found my mind wandering and I had to force it back to the narrative, but I don't see that as a flaw in this book. Everything about it, everything, reinforced the numb ache of Mrs. Bentley's life and her hopeless attempts to make a life with a man as unyielding as the climate itself.
The uncomfortable reality is that many people live this life. Different towns, different times, but the same feeling of invisibility, the same vulnerability to the impulses and inclinations of someone they love and believe they cannot live without, even in the face of the loved one's obvious lack of love in return. This woman made me feel anger because she wouldn't see her husband as the mean, selfish fraud that he was, then sadness because her pain was deep and constant, and finally almost hopeless, because sometimes life just seems too, too hard.
In the end I found myself asking who the real coward was. Was it him for choosing the easier way, a life of lies that would poison his own soul and batter hers, or was it her, for giving in to the notion that she was better off being mistreated by the man she loved than living life without him? I have no answer.
Obviously I did not read this as a disinterested observer; I'm not sure any woman could. It's painful and sad, and disturbing on a raw emotional level. Still, it is a good book and one I'd recommend to most adult readers, with the possible exception of anyone dealing with depression or grief because it does leave you with a deep and lingering sense of melancholy.
Mr. and Mrs. Bentley have just relocated to an unpromising little prairie town called Horizon, where he will be the pastor of a small church. The unfortunate thing (actually one of many) is that this particular minister of the gospel doesn't believe in God and hates standing in the pulpit every Sunday and lying. He does it only to earn a living, and because he doesn't have the courage to be what he wants - and has the talent - to be, an artist.
Their new town is miserably cold and barren in winter, miserably hot and barren in summer; the church members are judgmental, unkind people who rarely think of anyone but themselves except as topics for gossip; and the house provided as part of his painfully insufficient wage package is small, dilapidated and unattractive. This turns out to be a perfect setting for the excruciatingly strained relationship between the two of them. I know it sounds like I must be exaggerating, but it really is that bad. Again, not the book, but the situation.
The writing is good, the characters credible and the situation truer to life than is altogether comfortable. There were a couple of times when reading it that I found my mind wandering and I had to force it back to the narrative, but I don't see that as a flaw in this book. Everything about it, everything, reinforced the numb ache of Mrs. Bentley's life and her hopeless attempts to make a life with a man as unyielding as the climate itself.
The uncomfortable reality is that many people live this life. Different towns, different times, but the same feeling of invisibility, the same vulnerability to the impulses and inclinations of someone they love and believe they cannot live without, even in the face of the loved one's obvious lack of love in return. This woman made me feel anger because she wouldn't see her husband as the mean, selfish fraud that he was, then sadness because her pain was deep and constant, and finally almost hopeless, because sometimes life just seems too, too hard.
In the end I found myself asking who the real coward was. Was it him for choosing the easier way, a life of lies that would poison his own soul and batter hers, or was it her, for giving in to the notion that she was better off being mistreated by the man she loved than living life without him? I have no answer.
Obviously I did not read this as a disinterested observer; I'm not sure any woman could. It's painful and sad, and disturbing on a raw emotional level. Still, it is a good book and one I'd recommend to most adult readers, with the possible exception of anyone dealing with depression or grief because it does leave you with a deep and lingering sense of melancholy.
June 13, 2012
After careful consideration and a night's sleep, I'm fairly certain this is the worst book I have ever read in my life.
I wish I could divorce myself from my feelings about the plot and the characters. Because, I'll be honest, the writing was stellar. But is a book not supposed to be a unit as a whole? As such, the other parts of this novel just made it awful.
I've read Sinclair Ross before. I liked The Lamp at Noon. He can write a depressing short story. He should not, however, take it and try to make it a feature length epic. I can admire the cleverness of his writing, the unreliable narrator, the intricacies of the plot, and the stark realism.
But I just CANNOT read a novel that is so realistic it is boring. Was there no way to spice up the plot? I feel there were so many passages with Mrs. Bentley TRYING to be insightful that reminded me of being 15 years old and trying to puzzle out the world through my blog. It's cutesy, sure, but not what I want to read in a novel about a grown woman. Realism can only go so far. Especially when she begins to repeat the same ideas with very little difference. Going on the same walks. It's like reading your own life ... but worse. Because the novel makes you feel trapped.
This book made me DEPRESSED, like reading Elizabeth Wurtzel. But at least with reading her, I'm like "oh hey I'm never gonna turn into a crazy woman with a trichtillomaniac obession for pulling my leg hairs out with tweezers! That's so crazy I can't fathom doing it". But I can imagine being Mrs. Bentley and feeling trapped in a place, with people.
What aggravated me further was that I do NOT agree with Mrs. Bentley. I think she was a lunatic and should have just run off with Paul. They could have been very happy together in some other little town. She was too obsessed with Phillip and needed to chill. The fact that she could be that crazy and go unnoticed just felt really unrealistic to me. Like, wouldn't other people notice you were a lunatic obessive woman about your husband? Or were you just that clever? Well, maybe she was clever. But her diary was the most boring thing I've ever read in my life. I think even my 15 year old musings were better and more fun than this.
If I never have to see this book again, it will be too soon. If this is supposed to be the ultimate novel of Canada, I feel sorry for our lives. Are we really this pathetic and depressing and crazy?
I wish I could divorce myself from my feelings about the plot and the characters. Because, I'll be honest, the writing was stellar. But is a book not supposed to be a unit as a whole? As such, the other parts of this novel just made it awful.
I've read Sinclair Ross before. I liked The Lamp at Noon. He can write a depressing short story. He should not, however, take it and try to make it a feature length epic. I can admire the cleverness of his writing, the unreliable narrator, the intricacies of the plot, and the stark realism.
But I just CANNOT read a novel that is so realistic it is boring. Was there no way to spice up the plot? I feel there were so many passages with Mrs. Bentley TRYING to be insightful that reminded me of being 15 years old and trying to puzzle out the world through my blog. It's cutesy, sure, but not what I want to read in a novel about a grown woman. Realism can only go so far. Especially when she begins to repeat the same ideas with very little difference. Going on the same walks. It's like reading your own life ... but worse. Because the novel makes you feel trapped.
This book made me DEPRESSED, like reading Elizabeth Wurtzel. But at least with reading her, I'm like "oh hey I'm never gonna turn into a crazy woman with a trichtillomaniac obession for pulling my leg hairs out with tweezers! That's so crazy I can't fathom doing it". But I can imagine being Mrs. Bentley and feeling trapped in a place, with people.
What aggravated me further was that I do NOT agree with Mrs. Bentley. I think she was a lunatic and should have just run off with Paul. They could have been very happy together in some other little town. She was too obsessed with Phillip and needed to chill. The fact that she could be that crazy and go unnoticed just felt really unrealistic to me. Like, wouldn't other people notice you were a lunatic obessive woman about your husband? Or were you just that clever? Well, maybe she was clever. But her diary was the most boring thing I've ever read in my life. I think even my 15 year old musings were better and more fun than this.
If I never have to see this book again, it will be too soon. If this is supposed to be the ultimate novel of Canada, I feel sorry for our lives. Are we really this pathetic and depressing and crazy?
November 5, 2019
Along with the recommendation for this book came the warning that it "initially seemed quite feminist, but then by the end was actually very sexist." That makes for a strange arc for the narrator. From the start, her issues are portrayed well and bitingly. She's forced to balance this double-consciousness of seeing her husband as a strong, virtuous hero while still dealing with the fact that he's a douchey manbaby who is resentful and insecure about everything. It fleshes her out well as a complex and flawed character trying desperately to salvage a shitty situation. It seems like the arc is going to be that she eventually learns to stop idealizing her husband, possibly leaving him, possibly demanding that he put more work into the relationship, possibly cultivating a life of her own that isn't focused around him.
That doesn't happen at all. Instead, at every setback she doubles down and invests even more in the relationship. By the end, she adopts the child of her husband's affair while trying not to let on that she knows it's his because then he'd feel guilty about it and that might strain their relationship further. This isn't framed as good, exactly, but it's not framed as bad either, and when she accidentally lets slip that she knows the baby is his, she immediately regrets it.
I think this would have been better as a short story. If the whole story had been only the last thirty or forty pages, it would have seemed like a depressing slice-of-life story, giving you a sense of what makes Mrs. Bentley stay in this abusive relationship. But with it being a full-length novel, I needed her to change somehow. She can't start off trying to win the affection of her deeply mediocre husband, spend the whole book trying to win his affection, and then end trying even harder to win his affection. It's like if Moby Dick ended with Captain Ahab deciding he should devote more of his life to revenge. (Also, I don't think much would have been lost making it shorter. A solid three-quarters of the diary entries could be summarized as "Philip's back on his bullshit.")
That doesn't happen at all. Instead, at every setback she doubles down and invests even more in the relationship. By the end, she adopts the child of her husband's affair while trying not to let on that she knows it's his because then he'd feel guilty about it and that might strain their relationship further. This isn't framed as good, exactly, but it's not framed as bad either, and when she accidentally lets slip that she knows the baby is his, she immediately regrets it.
I think this would have been better as a short story. If the whole story had been only the last thirty or forty pages, it would have seemed like a depressing slice-of-life story, giving you a sense of what makes Mrs. Bentley stay in this abusive relationship. But with it being a full-length novel, I needed her to change somehow. She can't start off trying to win the affection of her deeply mediocre husband, spend the whole book trying to win his affection, and then end trying even harder to win his affection. It's like if Moby Dick ended with Captain Ahab deciding he should devote more of his life to revenge. (Also, I don't think much would have been lost making it shorter. A solid three-quarters of the diary entries could be summarized as "Philip's back on his bullshit.")
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2024
Umm yeah this is a different book than whatever I read when I was 17. So much more complicated. Maybe this English degree is doing something or maybe my frontal lobe is just developing
Well that was painful. Really beautifully written. I think about this book all the time it is ruining my life
Well that was painful. Really beautifully written. I think about this book all the time it is ruining my life
November 19, 2008
Thoroughly depressing.
January 8, 2024
2.25/5
At first you think they might get a grip on their relationship, but it just gets worse and worse and worse. I detest all but one character (Paul, I pity him mostly, but I appreciate him being a philologist) & the animals. At first I just wanted the couple to just divorce, but eventually I just wanted them to die off, too, ngl.
The writing style matches the plot, it's good at describing the setting. It's just really a tough nut to read. I could not care much for any of the characters, esp the main couple.
It's realistic, but also very repetitive. This could have been better if it was shorter and the diary entries were more selected.
edit: changed the rating
At first you think they might get a grip on their relationship, but it just gets worse and worse and worse. I detest all but one character (Paul, I pity him mostly, but I appreciate him being a philologist) & the animals. At first I just wanted the couple to just divorce, but eventually I just wanted them to die off, too, ngl.
The writing style matches the plot, it's good at describing the setting. It's just really a tough nut to read. I could not care much for any of the characters, esp the main couple.
It's realistic, but also very repetitive. This could have been better if it was shorter and the diary entries were more selected.
edit: changed the rating
January 7, 2016
Despite being a Canadian, up until this point in time I haven't read very many novels written by Canadians that are set exclusively in a Canadian setting. I've read a few contemporary titles by authors such as Heather O’Neill and Michael Winter, but I wouldn't call any of them particularly fantastic. Maybe I should've started reading from the beginning of the Can lit canon, because Sinclair Ross' As for Me and My House definitely impressed me. I'd read one other Sinclair Ross story before this (the short story "A Field of Wheat"), and for a man who was a banker by profession I must say he was an extraordinarily savvy writer, being able to evoke powerful, rich images in his sparse and bleak snapshots of Canadian prairie life in the early twentieth century.
Written as a diary during the Depression era, the tale is told from the vantage point of Mrs. Bentley, a middle-aged minister’s wife whose first name is never revealed. Married to the reticent and artistic Philip, the couple have just arrived in windswept Horizon at another church posting, and neither of them are enthusiastic about their new surroundings (to say the least). Philip approaches his preaching duties without an ounce of passion, for he is only a preacher to put food on the table – a fact that his wife knows too well. The marriage is a cold and unfeeling one, full of silent tension and unrequited affection. Mrs. Bentley is devoted to her husband, but Philip seems to take little pleasure in keeping his wife company, preferring the isolation of his study to her presence. The rather stark and ugly parsonage soon becomes a character of its own as the neglected wife has little to do but to huddle gloomily within its confines. Life plods on, and so do the seasons, and Ross expertly chronicles the passage of time in confluence with Horizon’s environment, one that is full of gale and dust, sun and scorched land. There is an element missing in the Bentleys’ life, one they desperately seek to patch with an adopted local boy and a wolfhound. But for all their trials, there is always endless tribulation, and satisfaction seems a distant dream. Ross details these situations with breathtaking erudition, layering his story with a myriad of effortless nuances that require a close and intimate reading to appreciate. The characters he brings to life are as realistic and flawed as they come, and the unreliable, limited narration via Mrs. Bentley makes every evasion as important as every extrapolation.
This is not a book for everyone, and I'd imagine it has frustrated a fair number of casual readers over the decades due to its arguably slow-paced story, repetitive descriptions of the environment and weather, and the emotionally distant characters that are certainly hard to sympathize with. It's deceptively short, and it’s not a book to be read in one sitting (or even two). It's a book that should wash over you gradually, a book that needs to breathe on its own and simmer in your mind. Even though, on the surface, there is an undeniable tedium to the repetitions and representations akin to the realist tradition, the fruits lie await in the labour of the reader. Fruits that are beautifully rendered, that display a great amount of true perceptive grace in the psychology of character and interaction. This is a book that is only boring to the reader who refuses to leave his shelter and take a leap into the unguarded.
Written as a diary during the Depression era, the tale is told from the vantage point of Mrs. Bentley, a middle-aged minister’s wife whose first name is never revealed. Married to the reticent and artistic Philip, the couple have just arrived in windswept Horizon at another church posting, and neither of them are enthusiastic about their new surroundings (to say the least). Philip approaches his preaching duties without an ounce of passion, for he is only a preacher to put food on the table – a fact that his wife knows too well. The marriage is a cold and unfeeling one, full of silent tension and unrequited affection. Mrs. Bentley is devoted to her husband, but Philip seems to take little pleasure in keeping his wife company, preferring the isolation of his study to her presence. The rather stark and ugly parsonage soon becomes a character of its own as the neglected wife has little to do but to huddle gloomily within its confines. Life plods on, and so do the seasons, and Ross expertly chronicles the passage of time in confluence with Horizon’s environment, one that is full of gale and dust, sun and scorched land. There is an element missing in the Bentleys’ life, one they desperately seek to patch with an adopted local boy and a wolfhound. But for all their trials, there is always endless tribulation, and satisfaction seems a distant dream. Ross details these situations with breathtaking erudition, layering his story with a myriad of effortless nuances that require a close and intimate reading to appreciate. The characters he brings to life are as realistic and flawed as they come, and the unreliable, limited narration via Mrs. Bentley makes every evasion as important as every extrapolation.
This is not a book for everyone, and I'd imagine it has frustrated a fair number of casual readers over the decades due to its arguably slow-paced story, repetitive descriptions of the environment and weather, and the emotionally distant characters that are certainly hard to sympathize with. It's deceptively short, and it’s not a book to be read in one sitting (or even two). It's a book that should wash over you gradually, a book that needs to breathe on its own and simmer in your mind. Even though, on the surface, there is an undeniable tedium to the repetitions and representations akin to the realist tradition, the fruits lie await in the labour of the reader. Fruits that are beautifully rendered, that display a great amount of true perceptive grace in the psychology of character and interaction. This is a book that is only boring to the reader who refuses to leave his shelter and take a leap into the unguarded.
April 29, 2015
As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross is a Canadian novel that tells the story of a marriage through the journal entries of Mrs. Bentley, the wife of a minister with serious doubts regarding his faith. Phillip Bentley feels crippled by his hypocrisy and suffocated by life in the "false-front towns" where he preaches on the Canadian prairie. Mrs. Bentley in turn suffers from Phillip's emotional distance and the disconnect that she feels from the people in the town of Horizon.
Told exclusively from Mrs. Bentley's perspective, As For Me and My House manages to convey the barren grandeur of the landscape and the stifling quality of small-town life. The language of the novel is sparse and haunting and it builds to create a sense of emotional weight within the reader.
As For Me and My House was a wonderful introduction to Canadian literature. It left me feeling conflicted and unsatisfied, but in a way that increased my respect for the book itself.
Told exclusively from Mrs. Bentley's perspective, As For Me and My House manages to convey the barren grandeur of the landscape and the stifling quality of small-town life. The language of the novel is sparse and haunting and it builds to create a sense of emotional weight within the reader.
As For Me and My House was a wonderful introduction to Canadian literature. It left me feeling conflicted and unsatisfied, but in a way that increased my respect for the book itself.
October 16, 2025
Never again. Awful
September 22, 2018
We’ll written, colorful and language about living in a treacherous time. A slow moving story, but moves in interesting ways. The main character was challenging to relate to, but probably because of the time in which it is set. Although fiction, it is a very believable tale.
October 27, 2012
Mrs. Bentley is a complex character; while sometimes infuriatingly dependent, she also reveals a very human hypocrisy and weakness.
October 6, 2023
A soft three stars. This was a difficult read for me to appreciate in spite of its status in Can lit; or perhaps that was part of my disappointment upon actually reading it. 100ish pages never felt so long. The author uses repetition and cycles to slowly wind the plot. The tone seemed borderline parodic, especially of the pastor and wife. Although I do not take these personally, they are for me, hilaiously personal. They simply felt cartoonish and unnecessarily sad, as did most other characters. Religion is a false front for oppression and hypocrisy. Paul was the only normal person around, which is ironic because here the author writes himself into the plot as the sexy/bookish/rational presence amidst all other's foolishness. I did appreciate elements of the writing - imagery, metaphor, setting, etc. The prairie is sublimated and I know the feeling. My own lack of enthusiasm is also made up for by Kroetsch's afterward, which did genuinely improve my outlook on the text by a significant amount. I'm glad to have read this, but probably won't read it again.
May 19, 2022
Ideally I'd give this book 3.5 stars. When I first cracked it, I thought, "This is so good, I may have a five star book in my hands". But after many more pages into this mere 165 page novel, I had to admit to myself that it wasn't going to make five stars.
I did enjoy the book but it also took an awful long time go get through, particularly for something so short. It made me think a little of Margaret Laurence's "A Jest Of God" because of the small prairie town stifling atmosphere and urge of main characters to break free. Not a lot of humour, though, and that could have helped things go faster, if there HAD been.
The diary format with dates actually helped especially if my bookmark slipped out, I would be like "Oh that's right, I was on April 5th." And also to help keep track of the seasons and the moving-forward of the story, as there wasn't a very thick or intricate plot. Plod, more like it, LOL, but that worked on some levels in that the two main characters, Mrs Bentley (the narrator/diary-writer) and her husband Philip (the new town preacher) both felt themselves trapped in yet another small town gig where things were not going all that well and they constantly worried about money and dreamed of something and somewhere better.
I found things would move really slowly with a lot of repetitive and similar stuff happening (which admittedly suits a diary) and then, towards the end of the book some really big things happened with almost shocking suddenness. I found the narrator Mrs Bentley to be a strange combination of, caring and a bit callous. Of course it's HER diary, so she's going to, spill her true feelings out and not try and impress anyone. Her husband Philip is the typical distant man whose wife just wants him to let her in a bit more. "Women Who Love Too Much," anyone? She certainly believes in him and stands by him through everything and even blames herself for holding him back from the life of an artist he was, in her opinion, meant to live.
I liked the realism. Life can be hard and depressing, so in a sense this was quite realistic. But oddly for a diary it also felt a bit distant, like even in her private diary Mrs Bentley is holding back a bit. Small town propriety seeped into her bones perhaps? It's interesting to have an entire town presented to us through the eyes/words of one character. Whether or not she's accurate about the people she writes about isn't as important as experiencing her life as she sets it down on the page. Or, as Sinclair Ross sets it down on the pages.
I did enjoy the book but it also took an awful long time go get through, particularly for something so short. It made me think a little of Margaret Laurence's "A Jest Of God" because of the small prairie town stifling atmosphere and urge of main characters to break free. Not a lot of humour, though, and that could have helped things go faster, if there HAD been.
The diary format with dates actually helped especially if my bookmark slipped out, I would be like "Oh that's right, I was on April 5th." And also to help keep track of the seasons and the moving-forward of the story, as there wasn't a very thick or intricate plot. Plod, more like it, LOL, but that worked on some levels in that the two main characters, Mrs Bentley (the narrator/diary-writer) and her husband Philip (the new town preacher) both felt themselves trapped in yet another small town gig where things were not going all that well and they constantly worried about money and dreamed of something and somewhere better.
I found things would move really slowly with a lot of repetitive and similar stuff happening (which admittedly suits a diary) and then, towards the end of the book some really big things happened with almost shocking suddenness. I found the narrator Mrs Bentley to be a strange combination of, caring and a bit callous. Of course it's HER diary, so she's going to, spill her true feelings out and not try and impress anyone. Her husband Philip is the typical distant man whose wife just wants him to let her in a bit more. "Women Who Love Too Much," anyone? She certainly believes in him and stands by him through everything and even blames herself for holding him back from the life of an artist he was, in her opinion, meant to live.
I liked the realism. Life can be hard and depressing, so in a sense this was quite realistic. But oddly for a diary it also felt a bit distant, like even in her private diary Mrs Bentley is holding back a bit. Small town propriety seeped into her bones perhaps? It's interesting to have an entire town presented to us through the eyes/words of one character. Whether or not she's accurate about the people she writes about isn't as important as experiencing her life as she sets it down on the page. Or, as Sinclair Ross sets it down on the pages.
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