What do you think?
Rate this book
The Voices of Eve #1
The Book of Eve
First published in 1973, The Book of Eve has become a classic. When Eva Carroll walks out on her husband of 40 years, it is an unplanned, completely spontaneous gesture. Yet Eva feels neither guilt nor remorse. Instead, she feels rejuvenated and blissfully free. As she builds a new life for herself in a boarding house on the "wrong" side of Montreal, she finds happiness and independence -- and, when she least expects it, love.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
191 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
10 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Constance Beresford-Howe
11 books13 followersConstance Beresford-Howe was born in Montreal. She received her M.A. from McGill University in 1946 and her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1950. She taught English literature and creative writing at McGill until 1969, then moved to Toronto, Ontario where she taught at Ryerson until her retirement in 1988. Her first novel, The Unreasoning Heart, was published while she was still a student.
Ms Beresford-Howe died in a hospice in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk England, on Jan. 20, 2016 at the age of 93.
Ms Beresford-Howe died in a hospice in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk England, on Jan. 20, 2016 at the age of 93.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
June 29, 2023
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.
--Anaïs Nin
I find it fascinating how often we cling to what isn't working for us, what isn't serving us any more.
How long we remain in marriages or relationships that have long ceased to grow, stay in careers that own us and have long outlived their ability to enliven us in almost any way.
How often we settle for “safe” rather than “dynamic.”
We are so damned afraid. We're afraid to be judged, afraid to be different, afraid of being alone, afraid to lose what we have, afraid to be broken.
Eva Carroll was afraid, too. As afraid as the rest of us. She'd done everything “right” her whole life: worked toward a pension, married a responsible man, bought a house, raised children.
Forty years into her safe, dysfunctional, and status quo marriage, she packs one light bag one random day and walks right out the front door.
Eva breaks open everything in her life, gives it away, and not one person in her life can understand it. They want to hunt her down, push her back through her front door, and DEMAND that she return to her life and behave.
But she just won't have it.
Wasn't it Rumi who once wrote “Give up this life, and get a hundred new ones?”
“Give up this life, and get a hundred new ones.”
Amen!
Let it go. . . burn it. . . release it. . . give it up. . . walk away. . .
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.
--Anaïs Nin
I find it fascinating how often we cling to what isn't working for us, what isn't serving us any more.
How long we remain in marriages or relationships that have long ceased to grow, stay in careers that own us and have long outlived their ability to enliven us in almost any way.
How often we settle for “safe” rather than “dynamic.”
We are so damned afraid. We're afraid to be judged, afraid to be different, afraid of being alone, afraid to lose what we have, afraid to be broken.
Eva Carroll was afraid, too. As afraid as the rest of us. She'd done everything “right” her whole life: worked toward a pension, married a responsible man, bought a house, raised children.
Forty years into her safe, dysfunctional, and status quo marriage, she packs one light bag one random day and walks right out the front door.
Eva breaks open everything in her life, gives it away, and not one person in her life can understand it. They want to hunt her down, push her back through her front door, and DEMAND that she return to her life and behave.
But she just won't have it.
Wasn't it Rumi who once wrote “Give up this life, and get a hundred new ones?”
“Give up this life, and get a hundred new ones.”
Amen!
Let it go. . . burn it. . . release it. . . give it up. . . walk away. . .
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver
May 12, 2023
“The real surprise-to me anyway-was not really what I did, but how I felt afterwards. Shocked, of course. But not guilty. You might say, and be right, that the very least a woman can be is shocked when she walks out on a sick and blameless husband after forty years. But to feel no guilt at all-feel nothing, in fact, but simple relief and pleasure-that did seem odd, to say the least. How annoying for God (not to mention Adam), after all, if Eve had just walked out of Eden without waiting to be evicted, and left behind her pangs of guilt, as it were, with her leaf apron?”
So begins Eva’s new life. From middle class comfort, she moves to the wrong side of Montreal, rents a basement room and attempts to manage on her $78.00 monthly pension cheque. (This book takes place late 60’s, early 70’s)
This book really delved into women’s subservient roles, their inequality, their dependence on a husband for security.
It was wonderful to watch Eva break free and learn to live independently. Her transition was like a roller coaster ride- moments of utter elation and moments of utter despondency.
I couldn’t help but admire Eva- an almost 70 year old gives up all her comforts to go finally find herself and to find some inner joy and happiness at last. How she supplements her income was quite humorous. Does Eva succeed? Well, you will have to read the book to find out. 😉
This is a perfect gem of a book which I would never have discovered if not for the literary lecture series I attend. I was born and raised in Montreal and had vaguely heard of this author , but never picked her up. Now, I have a great compulsion to explore her whole backlist.
4.5 Stars.
Published: 1973
So begins Eva’s new life. From middle class comfort, she moves to the wrong side of Montreal, rents a basement room and attempts to manage on her $78.00 monthly pension cheque. (This book takes place late 60’s, early 70’s)
This book really delved into women’s subservient roles, their inequality, their dependence on a husband for security.
It was wonderful to watch Eva break free and learn to live independently. Her transition was like a roller coaster ride- moments of utter elation and moments of utter despondency.
I couldn’t help but admire Eva- an almost 70 year old gives up all her comforts to go finally find herself and to find some inner joy and happiness at last. How she supplements her income was quite humorous. Does Eva succeed? Well, you will have to read the book to find out. 😉
This is a perfect gem of a book which I would never have discovered if not for the literary lecture series I attend. I was born and raised in Montreal and had vaguely heard of this author , but never picked her up. Now, I have a great compulsion to explore her whole backlist.
4.5 Stars.
Published: 1973
September 14, 2024
After 40 years of marriage, Eva Carroll's husband makes one too many demands one morning and she sits down her tray of cocoa, packs a small bag, walks out the door, and disappears.
She has little money other than her $78/monthly pension check, (it's 1973) but finds a basement apartment on the wrong side of town, finds a way to supplement that, and proceeds to enjoy her newfound solitude and freedom from obligations. She calls her son to let him know how she's doing, but not where she is. There are ups and downs and a few surprises, for her as well as the reader. For the life of me I couldn't think how this would end, but it was pretty satisfactory when it did. Would she go back to her husband, find a new place to live, or get even more involved in the lives of others in the boarding house?
I enjoyed this book for two reasons. One, Eva's ironic and sarcastic voice added a lot of humor to her narration. Two, I know I'm not the only person who has wanted to do the same thing at times. Just walk out, disappear without a word, go start a new life. It's a momentary thought, never acted upon, and I would regret it instantly. Is Eva's story a nice daydream, a cautionary tale, or sheer foolishness? I guess that answer lies with the reader.
Thank you, Antoinette, for a great review that led me to this novel. And this author. I'll be looking for more of her work.
She has little money other than her $78/monthly pension check, (it's 1973) but finds a basement apartment on the wrong side of town, finds a way to supplement that, and proceeds to enjoy her newfound solitude and freedom from obligations. She calls her son to let him know how she's doing, but not where she is. There are ups and downs and a few surprises, for her as well as the reader. For the life of me I couldn't think how this would end, but it was pretty satisfactory when it did. Would she go back to her husband, find a new place to live, or get even more involved in the lives of others in the boarding house?
I enjoyed this book for two reasons. One, Eva's ironic and sarcastic voice added a lot of humor to her narration. Two, I know I'm not the only person who has wanted to do the same thing at times. Just walk out, disappear without a word, go start a new life. It's a momentary thought, never acted upon, and I would regret it instantly. Is Eva's story a nice daydream, a cautionary tale, or sheer foolishness? I guess that answer lies with the reader.
Thank you, Antoinette, for a great review that led me to this novel. And this author. I'll be looking for more of her work.
August 28, 2025
Thank you Julie, a brave woman I know, for turning my head towards this book, about another brave woman.
I don't know why this author's name isn't more familiar to me. Constance Beresford-Howe is Canadian, from Montreal even, and she's written something every bit as compelling as other Canadian greats people know about. Her name sounds sort of pretentious and brought to my mind "The Millionaire" from Gilligan's Island (Thurston Howell the third, said in a really poncy tone). But don't be fooled by the name, this writer is real, and her subject matter is real too.
Eve has been married four decades. One day, she makes an impulsive decision to leave. Just leave. This wasn't premeditated. She didn't squirrel away funds for months in advance. She didn't have a bag packed, stashed in the trunk of a car. No, she just realizes that she's had enough of her joyless life with Burt, and she walks out on foot, without even a good pair of boots for the brutal Montreal winter.
Her decision may seem heartless to some (poor, cantankerous Burt!), but I see it as bravery. I was captivated by how she found a way to survive, and how she carved out a very humble life, but one with freedom to breathe, to think, to be. Once Eve shed societal expectations of a woman/mother/wife, she had to find what was underneath all that.
I know what it's like to sit in stillness, in my own company, and feel deep relief, and deep gratitude. Being free doesn't mean flying off to Burning Man, getting facial injections, having some kind of online orgy, or any other dramatics. Being free can look a lot simpler than that. It can look like peace.
So, bravo to Constance Beresford-Howe, a woman who captured so well on the page the peace that comes with being oneself!
I don't know why this author's name isn't more familiar to me. Constance Beresford-Howe is Canadian, from Montreal even, and she's written something every bit as compelling as other Canadian greats people know about. Her name sounds sort of pretentious and brought to my mind "The Millionaire" from Gilligan's Island (Thurston Howell the third, said in a really poncy tone). But don't be fooled by the name, this writer is real, and her subject matter is real too.
Eve has been married four decades. One day, she makes an impulsive decision to leave. Just leave. This wasn't premeditated. She didn't squirrel away funds for months in advance. She didn't have a bag packed, stashed in the trunk of a car. No, she just realizes that she's had enough of her joyless life with Burt, and she walks out on foot, without even a good pair of boots for the brutal Montreal winter.
Her decision may seem heartless to some (poor, cantankerous Burt!), but I see it as bravery. I was captivated by how she found a way to survive, and how she carved out a very humble life, but one with freedom to breathe, to think, to be. Once Eve shed societal expectations of a woman/mother/wife, she had to find what was underneath all that.
I know what it's like to sit in stillness, in my own company, and feel deep relief, and deep gratitude. Being free doesn't mean flying off to Burning Man, getting facial injections, having some kind of online orgy, or any other dramatics. Being free can look a lot simpler than that. It can look like peace.
So, bravo to Constance Beresford-Howe, a woman who captured so well on the page the peace that comes with being oneself!
May 20, 2023
I enjoyed this previously unknown-to-me Canadian classic from 1973 about a 65 year old Montreal woman who sets down her husband's tray of cocoa one day, packs a suitcase, and walks out the door to a new life in a basement suite on the other side of town. It's a good story, and you root for her to make it through and thrive.
What was especially interesting was seeing what's changed and what's still the same. Eve is a woman of her generation, coming of age in her 40s, giving birth to her son as the doctor smokes his cigarette over her, referring to "Women's Lib," and so on. Fascinating to see how family law has changed: . There's a blunt episode involving that surprised me with its modernity, and the poverty faced by older single women continues to be an issue today. It's exciting to see all these ideas and social developments percolating up that still resonate and elicit action today. 3.5 stars.
What was especially interesting was seeing what's changed and what's still the same. Eve is a woman of her generation, coming of age in her 40s, giving birth to her son as the doctor smokes his cigarette over her, referring to "Women's Lib," and so on. Fascinating to see how family law has changed: . There's a blunt episode involving that surprised me with its modernity, and the poverty faced by older single women continues to be an issue today. It's exciting to see all these ideas and social developments percolating up that still resonate and elicit action today. 3.5 stars.
April 17, 2012
This is an amazing little book with a very large story about a woman, Eve, who walks out on her husband after 40 years of marriage. She has not had a quarrel, nor an upset, she simply sets down is breakfast tray (he is somewhat of an invalid) and walks out the front door with one suitcase and very little money. She finds a room on the wrong side of Montreal in a boarding house and begins a new life journey without an ounce of regret or the least want to return to her old life.
I especially loved this story because Eve is a woman of my generation and all I could do was cheer her on throughout the ups and downs of this new decision. We are never too old to discover who we are and begin again in either large or small ways.
I especially loved this story because Eve is a woman of my generation and all I could do was cheer her on throughout the ups and downs of this new decision. We are never too old to discover who we are and begin again in either large or small ways.
December 9, 2012
Ex-Bookworm group review.
The most interesting thing about this book was that Ray chose it. It seems at first glance to be such a "woman's book", though I ended up thinking it was a "human book". All credit to Ray for having the guts to recommend a book many men might not admit to having read (even if they had). The Book of Eve reminded me quite a lot of "The L-Shaped Room" . I saw similarities between the two stories of women who had done something to make themselves social outcasts and found fulfilment in a way of life far from the conventional, middle class norm (Readers Digestville, as Eva calls it). However, whereas Jane Graham of The L-Shaped Room was young and pretty (I think Leslie Caron played her in the film?) and almost bound to find love and live happily ever after, Eva Carroll is an overweight pensioner with high blood pressure. I thought this gave the book a very interesting perspective. What a relief to discover that life doesn't only happen to young, glamorous people and that fat, old people can have adventures too! I was quite impressed with the enormity of what Eva did – 66 years of fairly uneventful life, including 40 years of humdrum marriage and she skips off like an 18 year old backpacker doing her gap year in the Far East. The "wrong" side of Montreal sounds a bit like those kibbutzes that people used to go to and all muck in together (do people still do that?). Eva said quite near the beginning of the book that she was looking for "apartness", but I don't think she was really. It seems like more of a case of not knowing what you are looking for until you find it. Eva seemed to me to be desperately lonely and not running away but running to. My first reaction to her physical acceptance of Hungarian Johnny was that it was a bit far fetched, but then I thought, why not? She didn't seem to get any great sex in her first 66 years and I can well imagine the feeling of not having experienced something and wondering if you have enough time left! I wonder that about a few things (not sex, though!) I'm not sure when this novel was written (1950's) but the money part was a bit weird. She could pawn something for 85 cents and eat for a week on it (reminds me of those apocryphal stories about a two tickets for the pictures, two fish suppers, a few beers and the bus fare both ways and still having change from a shilling), but forgetting the amounts, there was a good sense of how little it is possible to survive on and how irrelevant material things are to true contentment. This was an interesting and intelligent book about an interesting and intelligent person. Eva wasn't perfect – she dumped her granddaughter along with her husband and son. Her husband seemed to end up happier without her, just as she did without him. She didn't end up ecstatically happy (was alone and sick more than once). Her lover was no paragon (got into a fight over a waitress). I thought her story was more moving for being more real. One thing's for sure – next time I see a "bag lady" on the streets of London, I'm going to see her much more as a person, with a history and a future, rather than just a part of the scenery, like the pigeons.
The most interesting thing about this book was that Ray chose it. It seems at first glance to be such a "woman's book", though I ended up thinking it was a "human book". All credit to Ray for having the guts to recommend a book many men might not admit to having read (even if they had). The Book of Eve reminded me quite a lot of "The L-Shaped Room" . I saw similarities between the two stories of women who had done something to make themselves social outcasts and found fulfilment in a way of life far from the conventional, middle class norm (Readers Digestville, as Eva calls it). However, whereas Jane Graham of The L-Shaped Room was young and pretty (I think Leslie Caron played her in the film?) and almost bound to find love and live happily ever after, Eva Carroll is an overweight pensioner with high blood pressure. I thought this gave the book a very interesting perspective. What a relief to discover that life doesn't only happen to young, glamorous people and that fat, old people can have adventures too! I was quite impressed with the enormity of what Eva did – 66 years of fairly uneventful life, including 40 years of humdrum marriage and she skips off like an 18 year old backpacker doing her gap year in the Far East. The "wrong" side of Montreal sounds a bit like those kibbutzes that people used to go to and all muck in together (do people still do that?). Eva said quite near the beginning of the book that she was looking for "apartness", but I don't think she was really. It seems like more of a case of not knowing what you are looking for until you find it. Eva seemed to me to be desperately lonely and not running away but running to. My first reaction to her physical acceptance of Hungarian Johnny was that it was a bit far fetched, but then I thought, why not? She didn't seem to get any great sex in her first 66 years and I can well imagine the feeling of not having experienced something and wondering if you have enough time left! I wonder that about a few things (not sex, though!) I'm not sure when this novel was written (1950's) but the money part was a bit weird. She could pawn something for 85 cents and eat for a week on it (reminds me of those apocryphal stories about a two tickets for the pictures, two fish suppers, a few beers and the bus fare both ways and still having change from a shilling), but forgetting the amounts, there was a good sense of how little it is possible to survive on and how irrelevant material things are to true contentment. This was an interesting and intelligent book about an interesting and intelligent person. Eva wasn't perfect – she dumped her granddaughter along with her husband and son. Her husband seemed to end up happier without her, just as she did without him. She didn't end up ecstatically happy (was alone and sick more than once). Her lover was no paragon (got into a fight over a waitress). I thought her story was more moving for being more real. One thing's for sure – next time I see a "bag lady" on the streets of London, I'm going to see her much more as a person, with a history and a future, rather than just a part of the scenery, like the pigeons.
July 30, 2022
Eve is a 65 year old woman who has spent her life conforming, doing what is right, being what others expect her to be. One day, she walks out of her life.
This is a story of a woman rewriting herself, finding herself and finding out what she needs & wants & desires. It's a woman finding peace and purpose on her own terms.
Included in this small book are deep topics: women's rights, the need to conform, war & loss, personal needs & dreams vs expectations & responsibilities, happiness, personal fulfilment and personal choice. Eve struggles to find her way through the memories, losses, gains and looks into the future with strength, if some uncertainty.
While the story does move slow, it is a slow awakening that is happening to Eve. It's been 65 years since she's had to feel for herself. Finding her centre and being doesn't happen quickly.
Well told and written. A powerful story.
This is a story of a woman rewriting herself, finding herself and finding out what she needs & wants & desires. It's a woman finding peace and purpose on her own terms.
Included in this small book are deep topics: women's rights, the need to conform, war & loss, personal needs & dreams vs expectations & responsibilities, happiness, personal fulfilment and personal choice. Eve struggles to find her way through the memories, losses, gains and looks into the future with strength, if some uncertainty.
While the story does move slow, it is a slow awakening that is happening to Eve. It's been 65 years since she's had to feel for herself. Finding her centre and being doesn't happen quickly.
Well told and written. A powerful story.
August 5, 2010
In many ways shaped a picture of who I wanted to become.
January 27, 2025
started off strong but started to get kinda boring and annoying by the very end. solid 3.7 stars
Read
February 1, 2025Made me miss my grams. Wishing she was merely off on some mischievous excursion, up to no good, as she very well may be. It would really be so nice to receive a pay-phone call from her.
March 23, 2010
(French below)
How annoying for God (not to mention Adam) after all, if Eve had just walked out of Eden without waiting to be evicted, and left behind her pangs of guilt, as it were, with her leaf apron?
The Book of Eve is another little treasure found in a garage sale around 2002. The illustration dragged me: an obviously happy and carefree older woman with a cat.
A 65 year Westmount old woman decide to walk out on a sick husband, with she had been taking care of for 40 years, feeling invisible. The theme closely resemble the French movie theme "La vieille femme indigne", but in a contemporary Montréal. And with her meager welfare check, she find a basement room, strange neighbors and... freedom.
For the 1973, it was an audacious story. Full of bittersweet humor, narrated in first-person, we follow her for the first year of her new life. Eventually her son accepts her new ways and the situation of the ailing husband left behind improves.
FRANCAIS
Une Eve de 65 ans se sauve de son Eden chic pour s'enterrer, avec presque rien, dans un appartement de sous-sol de Montréal-est, près du pont Jacques-Cartier. Devenue, comme tant d'autres invisible parce que plus désirable, Eva en a marre d'être la bonne servante invisible d'un mari grognon et d'une chic demeure de NDG, sans jamais avoir connu une réelle intimité.
L'histoire se passe fin années 60 (après la visite du Général DeGaulle à Montréal). Eva se débrouille avec son chèque de pension et des trouvailles qu'elle revend à un pawnbroker, ce qui nous rappelle les prix incroyablement bas de l'époque. Ah, le téléphone public à 10 cents! Il y a des détails pratiques, comme les chaussures de tennis blanches qui lui servent de bottes d'hiver, et quand la glace est trop dangereuse pour elle, les longues journées à remplir d'activités. Cela ne va pas sans heurts, elle passe par des hauts et des bas.
Il y a des visions de Montréal des années 60, et les méditations sur le monde, la respctabilité, Dieu, la sexualité, l'age "invisible"... Et elle se permet une petite lampée de SHerry de temps en temps! Eva rencontrera un vieux chat, des drôles de voisins, toute une galerie de personnes un peu fêlées qu'elle apprendra à connaître. Dont un drole d'hurluberlu excentrique qui deviendra un ami proche...
Un manifeste d'amour de la liberté, par une femme âgée qui trangresse tous les interdits.
J'ai relu complètement le livre hier, et j'en garde une impression de satisfaction.
How annoying for God (not to mention Adam) after all, if Eve had just walked out of Eden without waiting to be evicted, and left behind her pangs of guilt, as it were, with her leaf apron?
The Book of Eve is another little treasure found in a garage sale around 2002. The illustration dragged me: an obviously happy and carefree older woman with a cat.
A 65 year Westmount old woman decide to walk out on a sick husband, with she had been taking care of for 40 years, feeling invisible. The theme closely resemble the French movie theme "La vieille femme indigne", but in a contemporary Montréal. And with her meager welfare check, she find a basement room, strange neighbors and... freedom.
For the 1973, it was an audacious story. Full of bittersweet humor, narrated in first-person, we follow her for the first year of her new life. Eventually her son accepts her new ways and the situation of the ailing husband left behind improves.
FRANCAIS
Une Eve de 65 ans se sauve de son Eden chic pour s'enterrer, avec presque rien, dans un appartement de sous-sol de Montréal-est, près du pont Jacques-Cartier. Devenue, comme tant d'autres invisible parce que plus désirable, Eva en a marre d'être la bonne servante invisible d'un mari grognon et d'une chic demeure de NDG, sans jamais avoir connu une réelle intimité.
L'histoire se passe fin années 60 (après la visite du Général DeGaulle à Montréal). Eva se débrouille avec son chèque de pension et des trouvailles qu'elle revend à un pawnbroker, ce qui nous rappelle les prix incroyablement bas de l'époque. Ah, le téléphone public à 10 cents! Il y a des détails pratiques, comme les chaussures de tennis blanches qui lui servent de bottes d'hiver, et quand la glace est trop dangereuse pour elle, les longues journées à remplir d'activités. Cela ne va pas sans heurts, elle passe par des hauts et des bas.
Il y a des visions de Montréal des années 60, et les méditations sur le monde, la respctabilité, Dieu, la sexualité, l'age "invisible"... Et elle se permet une petite lampée de SHerry de temps en temps! Eva rencontrera un vieux chat, des drôles de voisins, toute une galerie de personnes un peu fêlées qu'elle apprendra à connaître. Dont un drole d'hurluberlu excentrique qui deviendra un ami proche...
Un manifeste d'amour de la liberté, par une femme âgée qui trangresse tous les interdits.
J'ai relu complètement le livre hier, et j'en garde une impression de satisfaction.
February 4, 2018
https://ayearofbooksblog.com/2018/02/...
In a time of #metoo, as the media highlights far too many stories of abuse, misogyny and inappropriate behaviour, it is interesting to read a book first published in 1973 and reflect that, in many ways, not much has changed. The Book of Eve is the story of Eva, a girl, a woman, a wife, a mother and a grandmother who struggles through relationships, an unhappy marriage, motherhood and then suddenly picks up and leaves it all behind.
Eva suddenly grabbed a few things in a suitcase, called a taxi and exited her home, her marriage and her family. She left a 40 year marriage and a demanding husband who had provided but had been abusive and had little respect for his wife. She found a room in a basement and made the best of it, getting by on her scanty monthly pension cheques, scavenging for items to sell and reflecting on her new freedom and her past relationships and experiences.
Her son pleaded with her to go back home, her grand-daughter was shocked to run into her and see her unkempt appearance but she was able to find a caring relationship, with a much younger man, when she least expected it.
Montreal born, Constance Beresford-Howe published 10 novels including two more in the Voices of Eve series. She died at age 93 in January 2016 and this article by the Globe and Mail shares more interesting details of her life and works. She was reported to have had a happy marriage and sadly, her husband died two weeks after her death.
This is a great book, a quick read and makes a reader reflect. It is a book that leaves me pondering and grateful that I am lucky that I don’t need to say #metoo. It leaves me thinking that the PhD educated author was ahead of her time and a strong advocate for women. I will be keeping my eyes out for more of her books!
In a time of #metoo, as the media highlights far too many stories of abuse, misogyny and inappropriate behaviour, it is interesting to read a book first published in 1973 and reflect that, in many ways, not much has changed. The Book of Eve is the story of Eva, a girl, a woman, a wife, a mother and a grandmother who struggles through relationships, an unhappy marriage, motherhood and then suddenly picks up and leaves it all behind.
Eva suddenly grabbed a few things in a suitcase, called a taxi and exited her home, her marriage and her family. She left a 40 year marriage and a demanding husband who had provided but had been abusive and had little respect for his wife. She found a room in a basement and made the best of it, getting by on her scanty monthly pension cheques, scavenging for items to sell and reflecting on her new freedom and her past relationships and experiences.
Her son pleaded with her to go back home, her grand-daughter was shocked to run into her and see her unkempt appearance but she was able to find a caring relationship, with a much younger man, when she least expected it.
Montreal born, Constance Beresford-Howe published 10 novels including two more in the Voices of Eve series. She died at age 93 in January 2016 and this article by the Globe and Mail shares more interesting details of her life and works. She was reported to have had a happy marriage and sadly, her husband died two weeks after her death.
This is a great book, a quick read and makes a reader reflect. It is a book that leaves me pondering and grateful that I am lucky that I don’t need to say #metoo. It leaves me thinking that the PhD educated author was ahead of her time and a strong advocate for women. I will be keeping my eyes out for more of her books!
October 4, 2023
The best thing about book clubs is when they catapult a book into your life that you had never heard of and, even if you had, probably wouldn't be at the top of your TBR pile. I had zero knowledge of this one, from 1973, or its Canadian author, but it was just so unexpectedly delightful and full of the most gorgeous writing that I couldn't put it down. Instant favourite.
January 17, 2010
Loved this book. Perhaps one needs to be of "a certain age" to appreciate the courage it took for Eva to leave her comfortable, secure but emotionally abusive situation.
February 12, 2018
What a pleasant surprise reading this wonderful book.
August 27, 2018
Another little gem of a book about a woman who after a 40 some odd year marriage just leaves. Imagine, without more than a few dollars and a few things. She leaves her husband- a nasty man- and ends up in a boarding house with a few misfits (because of course) and families and we get to see how she gets on. I liked her enough but her ideology was repetitive but I guess that's how thoughts work when you're reading a first person story. We learn about her past in flashbacks and see how sweet freedom can be when you're on your own even as a pretty old lady in downtown Montreal.
June 6, 2019
I read this book when it was first published, 1973 I think and I liked it then. I liked it just as much this time. The theme is how we trap ourselves trying to impress the neighbours. That old saying, 'what will the neighbours say', still seems carry a lot of weight. At the end of the book Eva was just starting to think for herself or please herself. She still had a way to go but I believe would get there.
July 10, 2023
This is the 'oldest' book I have read in years, published first in 1973. Set in that time, in Montreal, a woman leaves her husband of 40 years. She narrates her journey with insight and humour. At the end of the novel, I thought, "Is she settling again?" Hmmm...hard to say.
July 3, 2017
Eva's just turned 65 in the late 1960s, has received her first old-age pension cheque, and decides one frosty October morning to leave her husband, Burt, to whom she's been miserably married for over 40 years. They've lived a materially comfortable, spiritually stifling suburban life in Montreal. She's had enough.
She leaves after setting out Burt's usual paltry breakfast: an apple and a cup of cocoa. She leaves with one small valise that contains "Wuthering Heights and a poetry anthology from my bedside shelf; but I didn't forget the grosser animal, and also took along my blood-pressure pills, glasses, hairbrush, and warm old-woman underpants. At the last minute I pulled out the plug of the little FM radio..."
Where will she go on this seeming whim? How will she survive? In her time and place, she's considered a fallen woman. She alludes to the biblical Eve on occasion, as she walks around seedy city parks, nosing into trash cans and under benches for her "finds." She does feel fallen at times -- fallen into a loneliness that threatens to kill her when her hard-won solitude despairs of itself during her first November living in a sodden, dingy basement flat.
But she rises. She's tough as nails, despite her age and poverty. She gradually -- and often grudgingly -- allows herself to thaw towards her neighbours, her family, herself. She admits and rejects a suitor: a survivor of the Soviet invasion of Hungary who's beefy, blustery, often drunk, and makes a wicked goulash. He's more than a decade younger than Eva, and she wonders if another man is worth the bother. Yes, no, yes, no ...
Eva notices things. She's a thinker. She's tart and witty, and beneath the ragged patrician exterior, she's in deep mourning, as mystics often are. (She realizes her arising mysticism as she observes the regulars in a park -- the misfits who have nowhere else to go and nothing to do but contemplate existence.) She and a ragged old tomcat lash out at each other until one frigid night when he's huddled against her basement window and is shaking so hard that his body bangs again and again at the glass. He's injured; she grabs him, takes him in, and hurls the screaming creature down. Eventually, as most cats do, the old tom entwines himself into Eva's life. Another old tom does, too ... the neighbour who's a gourmand of all stews Hungarian, whose name suggests anywhere but 1950s Communist Europe: Johnny.
Eva defies destitution and despair -- those fatal twins that nip at her cold-calloused heels. All she can afford to wear on her feet are a pair of kid's tennis shoes scooped up at a bargain-bin shop. Even as her son, Neil, badgers her to return home or at least accept some money -- and to tell him where she is, for God's sake! -- she will not relent. Her soul nearly soured and died and if her body dies now? What's there to lose?
She prevails, and admits the light.
~ What a find this book was. Its spine leapt at my eye in a used book shop. I'm close to Eva's age, and I wonder how my own life will wind down. I've walked in similar shoes. Despair has etched at me, and light has nudged me along when nearly all else was gone. Eva's an animator -- she becomes a shedder of light -- and for women of a certain age, a heroine.
As so often happens in a great story (which could be yours, mine), love has the last word. Love in several, often surprising, guises. Love that stammers and stutters, that typhoons your life. There's that one verse in the Christian Bible -- "Love never fails." It's true. We fail -- we flail and we flounder, we toss up a mess; we blow it, again and again. Love returns like the breath of Spring. It never fails, no matter its guise. Eva's agog that someone would want her: "What would he want, a fellow full of ideas and sap like that, with a queer old female scavenger living out of tins, somebody foreign to him in every way, and on top of all that, a snob?" Surprise, surprise ...
The Book of Eve is a book to love. I began it with a "Meh" and wept to complete it. It's under my skin now. Anyone whose hope is in tatters, however it ripped, could be touched by this book. Again and again, somehow, we prevail, and it's Love that prevails through us, through the holes in our lives' fabric.
Bonus fact: Jessica Tandy played Eva in a Stratford Festival production of The Book of Eve!
First line:
The real surprise -- to me anyway -- was not really what I did, but how I felt afterwards.
Quotes:
And then I woke up to hear my heart beating. I began then to count and think. Great mistakes, both.
I lay immersed in present time like someone helpless, buried up to the chin in shit.
She moved with the vague dignity and inefficiency of a captive balloon.
(To the haranguing inner voice of judgment--) "Now will you *kindly* piss off and leave me alone.
Neil to Eva: "What have you been doing lately?"
Eva: "Oh, nothing much. Sitting under the Tree of Knowledge. The damn thing turned out to be a vegetable bore."
~ The last paragraph is a gem, and that's what got me weeping.
She leaves after setting out Burt's usual paltry breakfast: an apple and a cup of cocoa. She leaves with one small valise that contains "Wuthering Heights and a poetry anthology from my bedside shelf; but I didn't forget the grosser animal, and also took along my blood-pressure pills, glasses, hairbrush, and warm old-woman underpants. At the last minute I pulled out the plug of the little FM radio..."
Where will she go on this seeming whim? How will she survive? In her time and place, she's considered a fallen woman. She alludes to the biblical Eve on occasion, as she walks around seedy city parks, nosing into trash cans and under benches for her "finds." She does feel fallen at times -- fallen into a loneliness that threatens to kill her when her hard-won solitude despairs of itself during her first November living in a sodden, dingy basement flat.
But she rises. She's tough as nails, despite her age and poverty. She gradually -- and often grudgingly -- allows herself to thaw towards her neighbours, her family, herself. She admits and rejects a suitor: a survivor of the Soviet invasion of Hungary who's beefy, blustery, often drunk, and makes a wicked goulash. He's more than a decade younger than Eva, and she wonders if another man is worth the bother. Yes, no, yes, no ...
Eva notices things. She's a thinker. She's tart and witty, and beneath the ragged patrician exterior, she's in deep mourning, as mystics often are. (She realizes her arising mysticism as she observes the regulars in a park -- the misfits who have nowhere else to go and nothing to do but contemplate existence.) She and a ragged old tomcat lash out at each other until one frigid night when he's huddled against her basement window and is shaking so hard that his body bangs again and again at the glass. He's injured; she grabs him, takes him in, and hurls the screaming creature down. Eventually, as most cats do, the old tom entwines himself into Eva's life. Another old tom does, too ... the neighbour who's a gourmand of all stews Hungarian, whose name suggests anywhere but 1950s Communist Europe: Johnny.
Eva defies destitution and despair -- those fatal twins that nip at her cold-calloused heels. All she can afford to wear on her feet are a pair of kid's tennis shoes scooped up at a bargain-bin shop. Even as her son, Neil, badgers her to return home or at least accept some money -- and to tell him where she is, for God's sake! -- she will not relent. Her soul nearly soured and died and if her body dies now? What's there to lose?
She prevails, and admits the light.
~ What a find this book was. Its spine leapt at my eye in a used book shop. I'm close to Eva's age, and I wonder how my own life will wind down. I've walked in similar shoes. Despair has etched at me, and light has nudged me along when nearly all else was gone. Eva's an animator -- she becomes a shedder of light -- and for women of a certain age, a heroine.
As so often happens in a great story (which could be yours, mine), love has the last word. Love in several, often surprising, guises. Love that stammers and stutters, that typhoons your life. There's that one verse in the Christian Bible -- "Love never fails." It's true. We fail -- we flail and we flounder, we toss up a mess; we blow it, again and again. Love returns like the breath of Spring. It never fails, no matter its guise. Eva's agog that someone would want her: "What would he want, a fellow full of ideas and sap like that, with a queer old female scavenger living out of tins, somebody foreign to him in every way, and on top of all that, a snob?" Surprise, surprise ...
The Book of Eve is a book to love. I began it with a "Meh" and wept to complete it. It's under my skin now. Anyone whose hope is in tatters, however it ripped, could be touched by this book. Again and again, somehow, we prevail, and it's Love that prevails through us, through the holes in our lives' fabric.
Bonus fact: Jessica Tandy played Eva in a Stratford Festival production of The Book of Eve!
First line:
The real surprise -- to me anyway -- was not really what I did, but how I felt afterwards.
Quotes:
And then I woke up to hear my heart beating. I began then to count and think. Great mistakes, both.
I lay immersed in present time like someone helpless, buried up to the chin in shit.
She moved with the vague dignity and inefficiency of a captive balloon.
(To the haranguing inner voice of judgment--) "Now will you *kindly* piss off and leave me alone.
Neil to Eva: "What have you been doing lately?"
Eva: "Oh, nothing much. Sitting under the Tree of Knowledge. The damn thing turned out to be a vegetable bore."
~ The last paragraph is a gem, and that's what got me weeping.
March 30, 2010
The beginning of this book intrigued me. An older woman just decides to walk away from her life, including ailing husband, & does it---that very day! Set in Montreal, she has no plans, no suitcase, very little money, etc. Sometime during a city bus ride, she decides Montreal's a big enough city for her to relocate by merely living across town. She's close to being homeless, but manages to find a shoddy basement apartment to rent. From there, we're in her thoughts of idleness, no demands (the hubby was a pain), vague thoughts of her family, new neighbors, and a stray cat & younger man by about 1-15 yrs.
I found her journey at first interesting, then dull & finally disappointing. I felt she almost came a full circle which wasn't satisfying---just another set of obligations & demands.....
I found her journey at first interesting, then dull & finally disappointing. I felt she almost came a full circle which wasn't satisfying---just another set of obligations & demands.....
January 14, 2018
Surprisingly lovely little novel that may seem dated but it still can speak to women today, as it voices voicing the continuing ways women are controlled and held back from true equality in being human.
January 9, 2021
This was an absolutely delightful book about an older woman of some means who one day just walks away from her marriage and reinvents herself in poverty and isolation in Montreal. Watching her evolve was lovely.
February 25, 2025
Okay, so this may be a "me-thing", so future reader be forewarned that you may still like this book. I am just getting to where I can't handle first-person P.O.V. in fiction. Maybe this still goes back to my preference my whole life for nonfiction over fiction, I'm not sure. And oddly, SOMETIMES it DOES work for me, but not in this novel!
This book read like one, long, long, monologue in a play that went nowhere. The main - and practically only - character yakked incessantly about next to nothing. She would discuss all of her inner thoughts, reflections, dreams - look, I don't even want to hear about REAL people's dreams, let alone a fictional character's dreams! And I can barely listen to yakking from REAL people, I can't handle it when it's FICTION.
I read some reviews that readers were disappointed that there wasn't more "growth" by the end. Heck, I didn't even need "growth", I just wanted it to go SOMEWHERE after all this kvetching! There was no plot, no forward driving movement. It all took place in her one-room basement and a on the alleys nearby.
Lastly, this is not the author's fault, but horrible jacket cover! I thought the whole thing was going to be a period piece like medieval days in Italy. Then in the first few pages I kept thinking is thing London? Finally figured out Canada. Never, ever, understood any connection to "Eve".
I'm trying to be kind with 3 stars for it being a quick, fairly short, read. Perhaps good for a poolside summer distraction?
This book read like one, long, long, monologue in a play that went nowhere. The main - and practically only - character yakked incessantly about next to nothing. She would discuss all of her inner thoughts, reflections, dreams - look, I don't even want to hear about REAL people's dreams, let alone a fictional character's dreams! And I can barely listen to yakking from REAL people, I can't handle it when it's FICTION.
I read some reviews that readers were disappointed that there wasn't more "growth" by the end. Heck, I didn't even need "growth", I just wanted it to go SOMEWHERE after all this kvetching! There was no plot, no forward driving movement. It all took place in her one-room basement and a on the alleys nearby.
Lastly, this is not the author's fault, but horrible jacket cover! I thought the whole thing was going to be a period piece like medieval days in Italy. Then in the first few pages I kept thinking is thing London? Finally figured out Canada. Never, ever, understood any connection to "Eve".
I'm trying to be kind with 3 stars for it being a quick, fairly short, read. Perhaps good for a poolside summer distraction?
May 10, 2025
In order to be able to read this book, I had to track down a used copy. I wanted to read a physical copy of this contemporary classic, though Amazon does have it available on Kindle. I am certainly glad I found a copy, this was a little gem!
What a beautifully written book, and I enjoyed the author's writing style. It tracks Eva's story from the day she unexpectedly walks out of her house, away from her life and husband. She has lived for over 40 years in a state of unrest, pushed into a sterotypical role of middle-class suburban housewife and mother. Eva has never truly lived for herself. Now, she just wants to be alone, but is that a realistic expectation for the human condition?
Eva learns how to live for herself and by herself. She finally experiences life. She goes through periods of contentment and periods of depression. I found her to be quite a relatable, and entertaining, character who had real reasons for leaving her husband of forty years. I was shocked at some of the ways he had treated her in their marriage, and I found myself rooting for her to find herself in the process. And she does. She learns and grows, and becomes.
I look forward to being able to read this book again in the future!
What a beautifully written book, and I enjoyed the author's writing style. It tracks Eva's story from the day she unexpectedly walks out of her house, away from her life and husband. She has lived for over 40 years in a state of unrest, pushed into a sterotypical role of middle-class suburban housewife and mother. Eva has never truly lived for herself. Now, she just wants to be alone, but is that a realistic expectation for the human condition?
Eva learns how to live for herself and by herself. She finally experiences life. She goes through periods of contentment and periods of depression. I found her to be quite a relatable, and entertaining, character who had real reasons for leaving her husband of forty years. I was shocked at some of the ways he had treated her in their marriage, and I found myself rooting for her to find herself in the process. And she does. She learns and grows, and becomes.
I look forward to being able to read this book again in the future!
April 28, 2018
Meh. I did not particularly enjoy this book, so I gave it two stars.
Note: I used togive full reviews for all of the books that I rated on GR. However, GR's new giveaway policies (Good Reads 2017 November Giveaways Policies Changes) have caused me to change my reviewing decisions. These new GR policies seem to harm smaller publishing efforts in favour of providing advantage to the larger companies (GR Authors' Feedback), the big five publishers (Big Five Publishers). So, because of these policies from now on I will be supporting smaller publishing effort by only giving full reviews to books published by: companies outside the big five companies, indie publishers, and self-published authors. This book was published by one of the big five companies so will not receive a more detailed review by me.
Note: I used togive full reviews for all of the books that I rated on GR. However, GR's new giveaway policies (Good Reads 2017 November Giveaways Policies Changes) have caused me to change my reviewing decisions. These new GR policies seem to harm smaller publishing efforts in favour of providing advantage to the larger companies (GR Authors' Feedback), the big five publishers (Big Five Publishers). So, because of these policies from now on I will be supporting smaller publishing effort by only giving full reviews to books published by: companies outside the big five companies, indie publishers, and self-published authors. This book was published by one of the big five companies so will not receive a more detailed review by me.
January 17, 2025
Eva Carroll is 65, just received her first pension check, and decides it's time to walk out on her husband and 40 years of the stale, loveless marriage. It's not a grand dramatic escape - she simply gets up, leaves, and starts a new life in a boarding house that's as chaotic as it is liberating.
At first, Eva waits for the guilt to hit, but it never comes. Instead, she feels “nothing . . . except a quite objective interest in what would happen next” (10). For the first time in years, she’s not weighed down by the past, and it’s kind of thrilling. She describes it as feeling “excited as a girl, and happy enough to fly” (10). Eva’s journey is about finding herself again, embracing her independence, and letting go of the idea that she must be anyone other than herself.
Above all, it is a story about freedom - not only that Eva feels like an "escaped prisoner never likely to be recaptured" (14) - and what it means to start over, no matter how old you are. And yes, it is also funny.
At first, Eva waits for the guilt to hit, but it never comes. Instead, she feels “nothing . . . except a quite objective interest in what would happen next” (10). For the first time in years, she’s not weighed down by the past, and it’s kind of thrilling. She describes it as feeling “excited as a girl, and happy enough to fly” (10). Eva’s journey is about finding herself again, embracing her independence, and letting go of the idea that she must be anyone other than herself.
Above all, it is a story about freedom - not only that Eva feels like an "escaped prisoner never likely to be recaptured" (14) - and what it means to start over, no matter how old you are. And yes, it is also funny.
August 31, 2019
I came across this book when I was getting ready to travel to Montreal in 2019. I think this story was a generation or two ahead of its time. It was delightful and real and affirming. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt, but the rest of the writing and story were so good and approachable, that I’m giving it 5 stars.
This was favorite quote—it’s a conversation between Eva and her lover:
“‘Trouble is, you [are] much too intelligent. You don’t trust the rest of yourself enough. [You] Try to be reasonable all the time, [which] is very bad for a woman.’
‘It’s men like you that make Women’s Lib. Well, I once wanted to get a PhD, but everybody agreed with you, so I never finished it. That should make you feel better.’
‘You minded that?’
‘Yes, I did for a long time. Not now. Even then I had a hunch most PhD research was no more use to the world than a cup of warm pee.’” p149-150
This was favorite quote—it’s a conversation between Eva and her lover:
“‘Trouble is, you [are] much too intelligent. You don’t trust the rest of yourself enough. [You] Try to be reasonable all the time, [which] is very bad for a woman.’
‘It’s men like you that make Women’s Lib. Well, I once wanted to get a PhD, but everybody agreed with you, so I never finished it. That should make you feel better.’
‘You minded that?’
‘Yes, I did for a long time. Not now. Even then I had a hunch most PhD research was no more use to the world than a cup of warm pee.’” p149-150
September 8, 2020
read for my Canadian Literature course about to take. Sure I will be able to set out more details in awhile
Favourite lines: Neil asks His Mum "What have you been doing lately?" Eve's reply: "Oh, nothing much. Sitting under the Tree of Knowledge. The damn thing turned out to be a vegetable bore."
Neil's response: "The fact is, Mum, I've admired you more since you up and left that I ever did before. Once I got over my moral outrage that is. You shook me up plenty. Ever since then I've felt different about quite a lot of things." (p 209)
Neil: "you must be putting me on." Eve: "Not at all. I'm being quite profound, actually. I am a damned woman. And it's something to know that much about yourself. Even more to accept it." "I'm off now, my dear. Got something to do that's irrational, so it can't wait." (pp. 210-211).
Favourite lines: Neil asks His Mum "What have you been doing lately?" Eve's reply: "Oh, nothing much. Sitting under the Tree of Knowledge. The damn thing turned out to be a vegetable bore."
Neil's response: "The fact is, Mum, I've admired you more since you up and left that I ever did before. Once I got over my moral outrage that is. You shook me up plenty. Ever since then I've felt different about quite a lot of things." (p 209)
Neil: "you must be putting me on." Eve: "Not at all. I'm being quite profound, actually. I am a damned woman. And it's something to know that much about yourself. Even more to accept it." "I'm off now, my dear. Got something to do that's irrational, so it can't wait." (pp. 210-211).
December 2, 2017
The Book of Eve is an enjoyable Canadian novel telling a feminist story of an old woman who leaves her husband in order to find a sense of happiness and independence in her life. It makes bold statements about the traditional nature of western marriage, when a woman was more subservient, dependent, and lacking choice. This novel is about Eva's quest, irrational as it often is, for autonomy. She gives up stable living and forever alters her familial relationships in order to find herself at age 66. I felt this novel dragged out a bit, especially towards the end, and I found it sometimes hard to stomach the main characters odd decisions to live in a state of often squalor. But in the end, characters were complex and flawed the and tale left you thinking.
***
***
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews