Friday, July 03, 2020

FFB: THE ELIZABETH STORIES

The Elizabeth Stories, Isabel Huggan

Eight stories tracing the growth of the child, Elizabeth Kessler, over a ten-year period (ages 7-17) during the 1950s was published as The Elizabeth Stories by Oberon Press in 1984, and in 1987 by Viking Penguin in Great Britain and the United States, where it won the Quality Paperback New Voice Award in 1988 as well as the Best Fiction Prize from the Denver Quarterly. Huggan has won many awards for her writing.

I read the book in 1988 and enjoyed these stories about a girlhood in a small Ontario town very much. Elizabeth has a difficult mother who regards propriety as overly important. She is often misunderstood, often plays a subsidiary role in these stories but never plays a victim. I see this book is now categorized as YA but I don't remember it as anything other than a book of related stories about growing up. Are we not meant to take childhood seriously as adults? Huggan is a lovely writer and this is a model on how to write related stories.

9 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Categorizatin of books by publishers is rarely anything but commercially-driven.

Noe the attempts to segregate THE MARTIAN and READY PLAYER ONE from sf, for fear of limiting sales to the snobbish/foolish/ignorant in recent years...and how many westerns seen as having great commercial potential not labeled as westerns.

YA since coming on the publishing scene was always rather elastic, and isn't getting any less so.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Very interesting. I never heard of the book or the author but it sounds like something I might want to check out.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I just ordered another book by here for $6. Will let you know if it's as good.

George said...

I've been reading several Young Adult novels lately. I have another Robin Hood book on order.

Margot Kinberg said...

Oh, that does sound interesting, Patti. Coming-of-age stories can be really fine reads.

Rick Robinson said...

Here, another one I wish I could get from the library.

TracyK said...

This book is perfect for me. It already sounded interesting since my childhood years were in the 1950s, but also you noted it is set in Ontario, and I want to read more Canadian books/authors. I looked her up, she was born in Kitchener, Ontario, same place as Margaret Millar and Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald) met / lived for a while.

pattinase (abbott) said...

My favorite Canadian author is Margaret Laurence. Especially Stone Angel.

TracyK said...

I will be reading that one soon.