Description

First paragraph:

If we were to assemble a canon of Canadian texts based on their ability to help Canadians live better lives, we might do well to include Sinclair Ross’ As For Me and My House as one of its core texts. For the text is not simply a “prairie book”—it may in fact speak to the primary needs and concerns of most contemporary Canadians. The texts narrator, Mrs. Bentley, often expresses in her journal her fear that she lives in a threatening and insecure environment. Yet she ultimately portrays her environment as one which is more secure than it is insecure. It is in fact inspiring—the various pressing threats are manipulated by her in her journal so that they actually work to empower her. And for the reader, the reading experience might not be anywhere near as claustrophobic and uncomfortable as we might assume it would be given Mrs. Bentley’s numerous complaints concerning the various particulars which make Horizon such a horror. The text may in fact feel roomy, and offer the reader pleasing variety. For some it may indeed serve as a place they nestle in for awhile and develop the resources and savyness to help make their own self-growth seem both more possible and permissible.