Be Quiet

By Margaret Hollingsworth

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0973083174
• ISBN13: 9780973083170
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Coteau Books
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!

"Be Quiet" is far, far more than a fictionalized biography of Emily Carr. Hollingsworth has written a fascinating novel that keenly explores the challenges of several women artists (in various times and places) and illuminates that necessary yet difficult connection between an artist's work and life. The many characters are complex and real; they continue to stick in my mind. This would be an excellent choice for book club discussion.

Be Quiet! No reason for silence!

Having read a good review of this book in the Globe and Mail, and a really awful review in a Victoria paper at the same time as I was reading "Be Quiet", I was intrigued by how other people experienced it similarly and quite differently that I did.This is not your conventional novel, tame and domestic. It is quite edgy, and every now and then makes you shout aloud with laughter or incredulity. It keeps you just a little off balance!The Victoria reviewer seemed to feel that writing about Emily Carr in a fictional way was bordering on blasphemous. He clearly had not heard of the midrashic tradition.Yet, this book put me off other books for a while, because the writing of "Be Quiet" alone was of such a superior quality than what most authors are able to produce that I could have enjoyed it regardless of plot and characterisation. Nevertheless, the dialogue is believable and compelling, the plot is sophisticated, and the characters quite engaging. I am one of these dreadful people who need to be 'gripped' by a book to keep reading. I found this book was able to hold my ever wandering attention without any difficulty. I found myself really caring about the characters. I really found "Be quiet" quite compelling, although it is not a book for the complacent or conventional. Put on your seatbelt and allow Margaret Holligsworth's considerable talent, and tendency to shock every now and then, take you for quite a ride.