A Bird in the House in Never too Late to Read Classics

Nov 13, 2022 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ww1, ww2, series, fauna, classics, hf, life-stages, relationships, canada, 2022-read

A semi-autobiographical novel told through eight interconnected stories. The setting is the fictional town Manawaka which is based on the author’s hometown Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. The central character, Vanessa, or simply Nessa for short, at the age of forty, now a married woman and herself a mother, looks back on earlier years. It may be classified as a coming of age tale. It focuses on her relationships with members of her family. Her mother, maternal aunt and grandfather, as well as both g ...more

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Jan 02, 2025 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: family, canadian, 20th-century-literature, coming-of-age, death, depression-era

A Bird in the House is the last of the Manawaka stories of Margaret Laurence. It is the somewhat rambling memories of Vanessa MacLeod, tales that often include her Grandfather Connor, a larger-than-life man who often bullies his way through the lives of the women who comprise his family.

The book is often referred to as a story sequence, and while I can understand that the composition is often not sequential and consists of vignettes more than a tight plot, it reads like a complete and cohesive A Bird in the House is the last of the Manawaka stories of Margaret Laurence. It is the somewhat rambling memories of Vanessa MacLeod, tales that often include her Grandfather Connor, a larger-than-life man who often bullies his way through the lives of the women who comprise his family.

The book is often referred to as a story sequence, and while I can understand that the composition is often not sequential and consists of vignettes more than a tight plot, it reads like a complete and cohesive novel to me and I rather think of it in those terms.

Semi-autobiographical in nature, it is the unfolding of the life of a girl destined to be a writer, a girl who often sees more than she understands but always seeks to finally touch that deeper meaning. Vanessa concocts elaborate fictions, much like Jo in Little Women, but it is the stories of her family, both those that are real and those that are only the ones they wish were so, like Grandmother MacLeod’s pretences to being a lady and Grandfather Connor’s pride in being a pioneer, that truly shape her mind and her soul.

I kept finding echoes of other writers in this work of Laurence–bits of Alcott, Welty and George Eliot–but, of course, the voice is always and only Laurence’s. In the chapter titled “The Loons” Vanessa says,

My dad says we should listen and try to remember how they sound, because in a few years when more cottages are built at Diamond Lake and more people come in, the loons will go away.

We know, as Vanessa does not, that it is more than the loons that will be lost, it will be these days at the lake. Other people will displace us, and memories, if we listen carefully, will be all that remain.

Like every good coming-of-age story, the moments and encounters here are opportunities to mature, to reach out, and to excel; and as is true in life itself, some opportunities are taken and some are missed. One of the major themes that runs throughout all the stories is loss, both of people themselves through death and of innocence through knowledge. Vanessa will learn how tightly some people must hold on just to make their way through this life.

Margaret Laurence is a bewitching writer. Her stories flow along and she often peels back the layers slowly around her characters until she strips them suddenly of their masks and allows us to see beneath. There is a startling moment of recognition before the veil descends again and we move on.
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