Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Canuck Book 10 - The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

I'm going to keep this one simple - If Margaret Laurence must be taught in high schools, then this is the book to teach, not The Stone Angel. Don't get me wrong. The Stone Angel is a very good book. The problem is I couldn't accept that fact until I was in my mid-20's. In high school, I hated the book because it just didn't seem all that relevant or interesting.

Now, I'm not sure that The Diviners would be a great fit for high schools, but it would be better than The Stone Angel. I wish I would have read it in high school but I've always been a little bit different that way.

The Diviners is one of my all-time favourite books. It's one of the few books I do go back and reread every now and again because it has never stopped amazing me.

This time was no exception.

5 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

The Stone Angel and the Diviners are such different books. The Diviners is such a sharp break from the type of book that Laurence had been writing prior to that.

Kate said...

I agree with you 100%. I read the 4 Manawaki books one summer part-way through high school (by choice, not as part of a course), and if I had had any other books to read that summer (I was away in rural Quebec learning French), I would have quit after The Stone Angel. But as the series went on, I enjoyed each book more than the previous one, until I loved the Diviners at the end. I haven't re-read any of them since, but The Diviners is nearing the top of my TBR stack.

Remi said...

That's definitely what I like about it, Barb. It's like she used every tool at her disposal to tell the tale.

It definitely holds up well the second (or third or fourth) time around, Kate. You won't be disappointed.

John Mutford said...

One of my favourites too. I still haven't read Stone Angel.

Wanda said...

This is my absolute favourite book ever!! I read The Stone Angel as part of CanLit 12 but like Kate, read the rest of the Manawaka series by choice and fell in love with The Diviners. I've honestly lost count of how many times I've returned to this book over the past 25 years.