The Stone Angel

This book, at times, can be a little confusing but ends in a way that leaves you thinking what you are actively doing in your life and how it is ultimately going to result in how satisfied you are in your life.

Margaret Laurence's THE STONE ANGEL came highly recommended. Elizabeth Hay, herself an accomplished and critically acclaimed Canadian author (see her ALONE IN THE CLASSROOM and LATE NIGHTS ON AIR), told me that in her late teens and early twenties Laurence had "made a huge, huge impression" on her and that she had gone on to read all of her books and that THE STONE ANGEL "is considered her best."Well, I can't comment on that last qualification because this is only the second Laurence book I've read. The other, A JEST OF GOD, was a masterful little book, but I must say that this one is even better, with its first person narrative providing a most disturbing inside peek at what it might be like to be ninety years old and largely unloved and unwanted - and perhaps deservedly so, in the case of the ubercritical and crotchety widow, Hagar Shipley.With Hagar, Laurence has created a character who will linger in your consciousness for a long time. Willful and headstrong daughter of a widowed self-made Manawaka storekeeper, Hagar, product of two years of finishing school, marries 'beneath her station' to a crude farmer, an action which estranges her from her father. She bears two sons, ignoring the hardworking and faithful aspects of the first and doting on the second. There is strife and tragedy in Hagar's life in Manawaka (also the setting for A JEST OF GOD) and brief intimations of a real affection that might have developed in her awkward marriage to Bram Shipley. But she squelches that, as she does so many other chances for happiness, and finally chooses to leave him and travel with her younger, more favored, son, John, out to the coast where she works as a domestic for a wealthy man. Things come slowly apart between Hagar and John, who moves back to live with his father. Hagar herself travels back to Manawaka when she learns Bram is dying. One doesn't often think of Canada and the Dust Bowl era together, but devastating scenes of drought and ruin run through this part of the book in descriptions of the landscape, with its prairie farms and line fences buried in wind-rippled deserts of dust.Laurence gives us Hagar's life in the woman's own words, looking back from the age of ninety, as she battles against the efforts of her son Marvin and his wife Doris to settle her in a nursing home. Rapidly slipping, both physically and mentally, Hagar dwells on her past mistakes, and even though she recognizes the unfairness of her acid-tongued criticism of stolid faithful Marvin, she seems helpless to stop, unable to change the habits of a lifetime. Barely able to walk - or think straight - she manages to "run away," by bus, hitch-hiking and, finally, walking. An interlude in an abandoned fish cannery, sharing smokes and a jug of cheap wine with a stranger, brought to mind elements of William Kennedy's classic novel of the Great Depression, IRONWEED. But perhaps the best comparison, from contemporary fiction, would be to Elizabeth Strout's recent Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, OLIVE KITTERIDGE. For Olive and Hagar share the same qualities of unpleasantness and pathos. Neither character is likeable, but both have much to teach us, particularly when it comes to missed chances and the sadness of growing old all alone.Cold, confused, hungry and alone, Hagar ponders death -"Hard to imagine a world and I not in it. Will everything stop when I do? Stupid old baggage, who do you think you are? Hagar. There's no one like me in this world."Indeed, Hagar. Indeed. And that is precisely the magic of THE STONE ANGEL. Laurence has created a one-of-a-kind character.

90 year old Hagar is an unhappy woman. Misanthropic and judgemental she is a friend to no one, not even herself. She was a bad daughter, wife and mother. You know the expression "She wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire?" Well, Hagar would -- just. As Margaret Laurence says in Adele Wiseman's afterward, she was full of pride for no reason. As Hagar herself says, Pride was my wilderness and the demon that lead me there was fear. She's a very interesting character who is of little use to anyone else in the world but she is a hard worker and does at last a revealing job of puzzling out her life.

First line:~ Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand ~I read this book after my 25 year old son shared with me his reactions to it. I figured anything that touched him in that way was worth reading. He did not lead me astray. I am a nurse and for many years worked with seniors and their families and am quite familiar with the emotional stress of caregiving and the issues around end of life decisions for medical care and placement in a care facility. And, 5 years ago, my mother died at age 83 after several years of deteriorating health. Reading the life and death of Hagar Shipley brought back many memories. My mother was considerably more likeable than Hagar but they both had a practicality, a stubbornness, a determination that enabled them to live a hard life and survive many difficulties. I was engaged with Hagar right from the beginning and found the writing to be realistic and beautiful. This woman reflects on her life from childhood, marriage, raising children, the death of one son, her challenging relationship with her remaining son and daughter-in-law and her basically unhappy life. I am impressed with Margaret Laurence's capacity to write realistic dialogue and to get inside the head of a much older woman. When Hagar takes herself away from the home she shares with her son and daughter-in-law and 'runs away' I want her to succeed, oh my, I want her to succeed but I could see that the story was moving to its inevitable conclusion. Even so, I was surprised. A wonderful read. I look forward to reading more of Margaret Laurence's works.

Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand. I wonder if she stands there yet, in memory of her who relinquished her feeble ghost as I gained my stubborn one, my mother's angel that my father bought in pride to mark her bones and proclaim his dynasty, as he fancied, forever and a day. (p. 1)Hagar Shipley has been through a lot, as you'd expect from anyone who has lived 90 years. Born in a small Manitoba town, she grew up the daughter of a shopkeeper. Her mother died in childbirth, and one of her two brothers also died young. Hagar grew up a strong, independent woman. She did not distinguish herself in any way that was unusual for her time, but her fierce independence and ability to stand up for her rights set her apart from most early 20th-century women. Now nearing the end of her life, Hagar lives with her son Marvin and daughter-in-law Doris, and is rapidly losing the independence she values so highly.Hagar has lived with Marvin and Doris for several years, but recently her needs have become more acute. She needs professional care, but actively resists any proposed change in living arrangements. She spends a lot of time inside her head, reflecting on life's highs and lows: the man she married, the sons she raised, the son she lost, and the townspeople who came and went over the years. A portrait emerges that provides tremendous insight to Hagar's character. The flashbacks are interspersed with present-day events: a visit from the minister, arguments with Marvin and Doris, and various evidence of Hagar's decline, which she often fails to recognize or acknowledge. Eventually Marvin and Doris convince Hagar to go on an outing, and they visit a care facility. It appears Hagar might actually accept the possibility of living there, and then a startling event dramatically alters the course of the story, and Hagar's life.I found this novel very realistic and moving. Despite Hagar's intense stubbornness and insensitivity, I liked her very much, and I felt very sorry for her as she lost the ability to do things on her own. Marvin and Doris' characters were less well developed, and they sometimes seemed a bit callous, but I also sympathized with them as they took on responsibility they probably never anticipated. The last chapters were difficult to read, because you knew where the story had to lead, and I was sorry to say good-bye to such a memorable character as Hagar Shipley.

Ninety year old Hagar Shipley, intensely full of pride, is reflecting over her long life while clashing with her son and daughter in law, who are attempting to admit her into a nursing home. For anyone who has had to struggle with this issue, or for anyone approaching the time when this will become an issue, Margaret Laurence’s book is an eye-opening picture of old age. Narrated by Hagar herself, the author is pitch perfect as she describes Hagar’s life and her difficulty accepting the next phase.“I am barely aware of the words that issue from my mouth. I am overcome with fear, the feeling one has when the ether mask goes on, when the mind cries out to the limbs, ‘flail against the thing,’ but the limbs are already touched with lethargy, bound and lost. Can they force me? If I fuss and fume, will they simply ask a brawny nurse to restrain me? Strap me into harness, will they? Make a madwoman of me? I fear this place exceedingly. I cannot even look. I don’t dare. Has it walls and windows, doors and closets, like a dwelling? Is it a mausoleum, and I, the Egyptian, mummified with pillows and my own flesh, through some oversight embalmed alive? There must be some mistake.” (Page 96)The most interesting point of the book is the fact that the main character, Hagar, is so totally unlikable. Her life has been joyless and there are few people that she has helped or even cared about and it is now, at this point in her life, that she is beginning to realize it. Generally, when the character is unlikable, so is the book but that is not the case this time. Laurence’s writing is stunningly beautiful and the narrative flows exquisitely. We follow Hagar as she follows through on her escape plan and we go back in time recalling when she was a child, when she first marries Bram Shipley (“In ten years he had changed, put away the laughter he once wore and replaced it with a shabbier garment.” Page 113) as Hagar dwells on her memories, which are all she has left.That it took me this long to discover Margaret Laurence is fairly unbelievable. An accomplished writer who has been awarded Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award she wrote her last book in 1989. I will be looking for some of her other books for here is a phenomenal writer whose prose is worth seeking out. Highly recommended.