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Cargando... Natural Orderpor Brian Francis
   Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.   ) bucketofrhymes | Dec 13, 2017 |   ) tinkerbellkk | Jan 24, 2017 | ) janismack | Aug 13, 2016 | Everyone in the small town of Balsden, Ontario knew that there was something a little off about Freddy. Something that was not quite acceptable in the 1950’s. But Freddy left town to become famous and Joyce stayed behind, married Charlie and had a son. A son who wanted nothing more than to play in the pretend kitchen in kindergarten and receive a doll for Christmas. Something that was not quite acceptable in the 1960’s. Something she had to keep secret from her husband. As Joyce shares her story we follow her through her life, her denial and then slow acceptance of her son’s (and Freddy’s) sexuality, small town life rife with gossip, the “gay disease”, and growing old. Could she have been a better mother, a better wife, a better sister or a better friend? I liked Joyce! I liked her story very much, too. Kudos to Mr. Francis for writing a story so filled with life, love, misunderstanding and heartache. Yet, told in a poignant way … interspersed with humor. People trying to do their best and not always succeeding. ( ) ChristineEllei | Jul 14, 2015 |  ) CarterPJ | Oct 20, 2012 |
Nonetheless, there’s a lot to like about Natural Order. There are chapters-long blocks of good, sharp, vivid writing, and long sections, especially in the nursing home, in which Joyce is perfectly convincing. The story regains its focus in the final third, and when he hits the emotional high notes, Francis never wavers. In fact, if you value your dignity, I implore you not to read the final 60 pages in a public place: You will cry, hard, probably more than once.  Toronto author Brian Francis (Fruit), a gay man just out of his thirties, tackles this generational gap in his sophomore novel, Natural Order, about an 86-year-old woman lying in an old-age home in the town of Balsden, Ont., looking back on her rocky relationship with her deceased gay son. The protagonist and narrator, Joyce, is a proud, brittle old bird, and Francis does an impeccable job of conjuring her interior life. From the very first pages, it’s clear how deeply he’s felt his way into the character and into the mindset of an aged woman.....Up until this point, Francis’s novel is pretty much faultless. His prose kept reminding me of Alice Munro, not only in its unfussy precision, but in its constant refusal of easy sentimentality. About a third of the way into Natural Order, however, aspects of the narrative started to wear me out.Then again, this is exactly the challenge Francis sets out for himself, and for us: to view homosexual life through the eyes of a thoroughly conventional, thoroughly limited woman of a certain era, and to do it without condescension or judgment. Brian Francis, author of Canada Reads finalist Fruit (ECW Press), has written an ambitious second novel that dissects the disastrous relationship between a mother and her gay son. Despite an occasionally heavy-handed narrative style and moments of predictability, Natural Order is structurally complex, highly readable, and poses interesting questions about generational change and the divide between small-town and big city lifestyles. Premios
Joyce Sparks has lived the whole of her 86 years in the small community of Balsden, Ontario. As a girl, Joyce allowed herself to imagine a future of adventure in the arms of her friend Freddy Pender, whose chin bore a Kirk Douglas cleft and who danced the cha-cha divinely. Though troubled by the whispered assertions of her sister and friends that he wasn't 'normal,' Joyce adored Freddy for all that was un-Balsden in his flamboyant ways. When Freddy led the homecoming parade down the main street, his expertly twirled baton and outrageous white suit gleaming in the sun, Joyce fell head over heels in unrequited love. Years later, Joyce married Charlie, who was nothing like Freddy, and bore a son who very much reminded her of Freddy. Tragic news of her childhood love arrived and Joyce was forced to face how far she should to go to protect the fate and life of her son and the implications her decision had. Today, as her life ebbs away in the bed at Chestnut Park Nursing Home, Joyce ponders the terrible choices she made as a mother and wife and doubts that she can be forgiven, or that she deserves to be. When a young nursing home volunteer named Timothy appears, so much like her long lost son, Joyce wonders if there be some grace in her life after all. Voiced by an unforgettable and heartbreakingly flawed narrator, Natural Order is a masterpiece of empathy, a wry and tender depiction of the end-of-life remembrances and reconciliations that one might undertake when there is nothing more to lose, and no time to waste. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (4.25)
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