Beverly JensenReseñas

I wasted time reading the first half of this book. The first few chapters were very promising. Then it would abruptly end a period of time in the story and jump ahead to another time (frankly less interesting). It had me saying--Well, wait! Go back and finish what happened after that! I do not like fragmented stories that try to span several years. I prefer a story that flows smoothly and breaks time when it makes sense to do it.

The chapter which was devoted to Avis receiving a baby cow just struck me as a boring non-story that my elders used to tell me that had no beginning middle or end and no point to it. (Chris Farley used to have a skit where he would interview people and his "questions" were just "Remember the time you ______, yeah that was cool" ) I'm wondering if the late author wrote the book based on family anecdotes and didn't take the time to construct a real full-bodied story. Can you tell I didn't like this book?

Update******If it is what other reviewers are saying, a book of short stories, then it should plainly state that in the synopsis or on the cover. It was marketed as a novel by the publisher, which it is not. I do not like short stories and especially weak short stories that are not strong enough to stand alone. That is all.

This story flows from 1916 to 1986, from New Brunswick to Boston, from fathers to sisters to husbands. Idella and Avis are just little girls growing up on poor land in a poor family when their mother dies in childbirth having Emma. Their father Bill is bereft without his loving wife and struggles to care for the girls and their older brother Dalton, and gives Emma away to relatives. The girls make their way south and to partners who cheat on them and cause them to be imprisoned. It's all pretty bleak, but there are lyrical and well-told passages which break through into humor and empathy. Idella's first visit to fiancé Eddie's home, complete with awful mother-in-law; her confrontation with a young robber in her grocery store (he spends his evening serving customers and stocking the beer cooler); and Avis and Dalton losing their father's coffin on their way back to New Brunswick during a historic ice storm, are the longer stories and the family legends that bring power and passion to the novel.½

Una casa appollaiata in cima alla scogliera di Bay Chaleur, nella provincia canadese di New Brunswick, è il luogo dove ha inizio la storia. A Bay Chaleur vivono le giovanissime Idella e Avis, insieme al fratello e ai genitori. Il piccolo mondo delle due bambine è fatto del rumore incessante del vento, dell’odore acuto delle aringhe e delle aragoste lavorate nella vicina fabbrica, dell’oceano con il suo fragore. La morte della madre riempie di solitudine la loro esistenza resa già triste dagli abiti usati e dalle privazioni. Beverly Jensen, racconta la vita della madre, Idella e della zia Avis e della loro scoperta del mondo, "oltre la baia". La loro nuova vita sboccia nel New England, seguendo costantemente e tenacemente sogni e speranze.
Prematuramente scomparsa nel 2003, a soli cinquanta anni,la Jensen ha affidato a questo romanzo delicato e struggente la storia delle due "Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay" .
Il significato dell'intera storia è racchiuso nella lirica prediletta dalla giovane Idella, tratta dal Salmo di vita di Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Non dirmi, in dolenti versi, che la vita è un sogno vuoto! Perché un’anima assopita è morta e le cose non sono ciò che sembrano”.

I don't know if it was the way the book was narrated or the book itself but I just could not get interested in any of the characters. I listened to more than half the book and then gave up on it.

I wasted time reading the first half of this book. The first few chapters were very promising. Then it would abruptly end a period of time in the story and jump ahead to another time (frankly less interesting). It had me saying--Well, wait! Go back and finish what happened after that! I do not like fragmented stories that try to span several years. I prefer a story that flows smoothly and breaks time when it makes sense to do it.

The chapter which was devoted to Avis receiving a baby cow just struck me as a boring non-story that my elders used to tell me that had no beginning middle or end and no point to it. (Chris Farley used to have a skit where he would interview people and his "questions" were just "Remember the time you ______, yeah that was cool" ) I'm wondering if the late author wrote the book based on family anecdotes and didn't take the time to construct a real full-bodied story. Can you tell I didn't like this book?

Update******If it is what other reviewers are saying, a book of short stories, then it should plainly state that in the synopsis or on the cover. It was marketed as a novel by the publisher, which it is not. I do not like short stories and especially weak short stories that are not strong enough to stand alone. That is all.

In the early 1900’s Idella and Avis Hillock live on a bluff on the coast of New Brunswick. It’s a “hardscrabble” life of potato farming and lobster trapping. Despite the harshness of life they have a loving family so life is good. Until their mother dies in childbirth.

Spanning 70 years, this book is written in vignettes featuring one or more of the Hillock family members. These vignettes take turns being heart-wrenching, heart-warming, outright funny and darkly humorous.

An interesting note: although some of the vignettes had been previously published as short stories the book in its entirety was published posthumously. There is a touching afterward in the book and if you listen to the audio version, there is a recording of Ms. Jensen reading part of the book herself. I would highly recommend this book.

Idella and Avis are the second and third children of a poor family in rural New Brunswick at the beginning of the 20th century. They have an older brother and, as the story begins, their mother is pregnant with her fourth child. When the mother dies in childbirth, much of the warmth and light goes out of their lives as their father struggles to cope. We follow the sisters to 1986. It's an interesting story with fairly well-drawn characters. I have no real criticisms; it just didn't seem that special to me.½

Idella and her sister grow up in Canada after their mother dies in childbirth. Well read audiobook. Really engaging storytelling. Surprising details, clean and believable characters.

Loved the beginning of this book. The writing style and the story immediately drew me in. However, about 2/3 of the way through, there were large gaps in time and changing points of view. Still well-written but it seemed as though some of the narrative thread was lost in that shift. Still, a very worthwhile read about a difficult land (the coast of Canada) and the people who worked to survive there or leave for easier places.½

A finely-written tale of two sisters from their beginning in Hardscrabble Bay, New Brunswick around 1916 when they were children. Their mother died after giving birth to their sister, whom the overwhelmed father gave to relatives. The book covers the two sisters' lives (but mostly Idella's, the more grounded and sensible sister) from that point as they made their escapes from the hard life of a lobsterman in Hardscrabble Bay, to make their way to the States and find that life is not particularly easy there either. There is a definite resonance in the periodic jumps forward in time, to be able to look back over the sisters' lives and see how they have arrived here, like tracing a roadmap. There is a chapter in which storekeeper Idella is confronted by a young hold-up man (more of a boy), that reminds me of a similar episode in William Saroyan's "The Human Comedy". Author Jensen died of pancreatic cancer at 49; this book was published posthumously. I think she must have been a Saroyan fan. This book is a little grim in its outlook on life, but there are the occasional redeeming moments of pleasure in the small joys of life. Just not quite enough of them.½

Set in the early 1900’s it tells the story of two sisters, Idella and Avis. It’s by turns hilarious, exhilarating and poignant. Read it, and share it with your friends (and your sister). [Kathleen]

This book was a little like Olive Kitteridge - same sort of flavor. Two young girls growing up in Canada lose their mother as she gives birth to her fourth child. The family is split up and really never recovers from this tragedy. I really think this writer had a lot to say about families and the various ways they survive in harsh environments and terrible sadness. Can I say it was a little boring in parts and sometimes a bit trite? But something about it made me keep going. A pretty good book, all in all.

Jensen has created indelible characters in the form of Idella and Avis, the sisters. They have another sister, Emma, who was given to relatives after their mother died in giving birth to her, and a brother, Dalton, who is enigmatic and seldom seen. Their father, destroyed by grief, rears the elder three children as best he can given his own demons. As they grow up, Idella and Avis go different ways but always keep in touch. There are some uneven moments in this posthumously published book, but its strengths outshine them It tells of a time an place - rural Maine in the early part of the 20th century and speaks to what limited choices women had at that time.

This lovely book, The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, by Beverly Jensen was published after her death at the age of 49 by her friend and supporters. The book is a collection of memories built around the two Hillock sisters, Avis and Idella. It tells the story of their lives.

The book is written across 70 years and is filled with strong characters who live difficult and complex existences. Beginning with the story of their mothers death, and their father's inability to cope with losing her and raising their three children alone, he makes some very bad mistakes and introduces the children to a series of family members and even a live-in helper called Maddie.

The characters are compelling and well portrayed. Many of the men are weak, rough and abusive. The women are survivors, though at times you wonder how. This is a story of family relationship, the resilience of the human spirit and the strength of family ties.

A thank you to the family of Jensen for publishing this book.

Idella and Avis were just little girls--about seven and five--when their mother died in childbirth. And they needed their mother, if only because of the softening effect she had on their father; and on the wild cliffs and ocean outside their door in New Brunswick. Hard-drinking and at a loss as to how to deal with his young daughters, their father did his best, but both girls took off for greener pastures as soon as they could. Then we see Idella solidly working as a cook, and later, married to Eddie, running a small grocery store. Avis was always a spitfire--inheriting her father's tendency toward drink and wild living. Some of the stories about the sisters as they grow up are entertaining, but many are just rather pointless. Finally at the end, it occurred to me that this is actually a grouping of interconnected stories about the same characters. As such it was not very interesting. The early parts, where the girls are young and running wild in the woods and meadows of New Brunswick, were great. This delight was lost when they moved to Maine and became wives and mothers.The most intriguing character was their father, and we see far too little of him.
This might be a good book club title--different readers would relate to it in divergent ways, and may interpret if differently, too.

Initially, I was fully engaged by the occasional melodramatic moments in the “hardscrabble” lives of the Hillock family, especially the mother’s untimely death in childbirth, leaving a distraught and impulsive father with four children.
Overwhelmed by thoughts of daily struggles to eke out what little his barren farm and the sea could produce, the father willingly fosters the infant daughter Emma to extended family, unable to bear this painful reminder of his beloved wife’s death. His futile attempts to preserve a semblance of family life with son Dalton, and daughters Idella (Della) and Avis, require desperate measures.

Numerous failures to engage an appropriate French Canadian housemaid and a female influence for his daughters result in an unannounced candidate with the arrival of Maddie, barely more than a child herself, but one who almost succeeds. This captivating segment of the book ended abruptly with Maddie’s unanticipated and reluctant departure just as she became a pivotal character within this grieving, chaotic family. Soon after, Idella and Avis experience the undeserved sting of what they consider is unwarranted abandonment as they also are forced to leave and live with relatives in Maine, where basic education and female influence is available.

Well into the book, I was confused by the sudden transformation of Della’s somewhat scholarly language into unnatural colloquial speech, especially apparent during her courtship and marriage with Edward Jensen. The meandering prose lacked the depth and potency which infused life into the chapters prior to Della’s first encounter with Eddie. The primary focus now shifted to Della’s sonorous marriage with a clichéd mother-in-law, a docile sister-in-law, a philandering husband and little about her daughters.

Though Avis maintained her meretricious behavior and clamorous decorum, she did offer a few unpredicted surprises by her uncanny ability to study human nature, and when least expected rose to the occasion. I was frustrated by the huge absences of Avis and her far more fascinating adventures coupled with her adamant refusal to conform to conventional standards.

The fundamental focus was upon Idella and Avis as “The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay,” with the initial rendering of their intimate relationship. Despite distance and diverse lifestyles, they did manage to have “sisterly” moments which sustained remembrance and rekindling of past feelings.

Aside from the awkward imbalance of flowing chapters tumbling into disjointed episodic ramblings, I appreciate the knowledge gained by the locales, the time periods, and seven decades of two sisters’ unwavering connection.

Sisters Idella and Avis start off this book with the death of their mother in child birth. This early tragedy, with a story spanning from 1916 to 1987, marks the beginning of a very hard existence for these sisters and their older brother Dalton.

With the death of their mother and her accompanying steadying hand on their father, Bill, the sisters are forced to virtually raise themselves. Their father drinks himself to sleep every night, mourning the wife that he loved dearly while at a loss as to how to care for his remaining family which now includes an new born infant. Meanwhile, his children are left floundering, trying to figure out life and eek out a day to day survival. While I did not dislike him as a character, he was after all a victim of certain circumstances beyond his control, I had very little respect for him as he was a selfish man who let his grief overshadow his responsibility to his children.

The first half of this story was beautifully written and the author was expert at creating vivid images in the reader's mind that gave a perfect glimpse into the lives of poor people at this time in history. The descriptions of the landscape, the cold, its brutality and barrenness, almost make the land one of the characters. And it is this hard, unforgiving place that shapes these sisters present and future. Even if their mother had lived, Idella, Avis and Dalton would still have had less than an easy life as resources were scarce and expensive. But with her death, life is made considerably harder for her children because in addition to the paucity of basic amenities, they lack love and happiness. Eventually the sisters are sent to live with an aunt and for the first time since their mother's death they have loving parental influences. But their father's hunting accident finds them back home to care for him and ends three years of happiness, education and a life free of despondency.

Unfortunately, about a 150 pages in, the quality of the book seemed to take a dip. It's hard for me to fully articulate what it is but somehow when parts of the story slipped into first person narrative, I felt like I was almost reading a different story. The story felt more compelling when being told by an external voice and it lost a certain something when some of the individual players began to narrate their own lives. Also as the story progressed it seemed to lack a bit of direction and devolved into a tale that just related the daily lives of the sisters as they navigated life. This made for a slow read from this point almost to the end. Regardless of this, I still enjoyed this movingly sad tale of life in America/Canada a the turn of the century. The characters were richly developed and made for a very interesting study of families and their complexities.

This book is sad and presents life in stark and painfully honest terms. There are no heroes here, everyone just seems to be trying to make of life what they can. The sisters lives are grueling but unflinching. They fall along the way with alcohol addiction, choosing the wrong men, bad decisions, etc but whatever happens, they try to come out on top and with some dignity.

*Review copy received from Amazon.com's Vine Program.½

Beverly Jensen died in 2003, but her collection of short stories (which taken together form something of a novel) have been published by Viking this year as The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay. The stories (apparently drawn from family tales) center around two sisters, Avis and Idella Hillock, and take place over the course of their lives, from 1916 through 1987.

From the opening installment (if not from the title itself) it becomes quite clear that this is not going to be a book filled with sweetness and light: the girls and their family members face crushing hardships right from the get-go as they deal with some of life's most cruel slings and arrows long before anyone should have to do so. When they leave their rural Canadian home for life in America (small-town Maine in Idella's case, Boston and other cities for Avis), they confront additional pressures and trials throughout their lives. And yet, somehow, a bond of devotion keeps them together, often laughing (even if sometimes through tears) at their shared struggles and triumphs.

Jensen's created some marvelous characters here, from the two Hillock girls themselves, to their hard-drinking and miserable father Bill, to Idella's indomitable and hilarious mother-in-law. The rocky coasts and gritty small towns Jensen captures here are embodied in her writing style; no flowers, just the brutal reality of life as it is. Sometimes very sad, sometimes incredibly amusing (the penultimate story, "Wake," is both at once), and always written with a graceful, passionate strength, these stories deserved to be published, and they deserve to be widely read.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2010/07/book-review-sisters-from-hardscrabble.ht...

fantastic review in nyt book review this w.eek

Ma hemorrhaged. Of course she did.