Comfort Zones (Polestar First Fiction)

By Pamela Donoghue

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1896095240
• ISBN13: 9781896095240
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Polestar Pr
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Great !!

This could be described as a collection of short stories but that would be an injustice. It is a finely crafted novel with a page-turning plot. We follow the struggles of Lisa from a moderately poor and unhappy childhood on the moderately Anglicized East coast of Canada to a moderately prosperous and happy adulthood on the moderately Americanized West coast. It is true that each episode is self-contained and comes to its own climax but each adds another detail to the meticulously realistic picture. The narrative is told from multiple points of view, which is often a gimmick to show how clever the writer is, but which in Donoghue's hands never intrudes as a literary device. Each story centers on a member of Lisa's family, sometimes an immediate member, sometimes a niece or cousin. It is utterly true to life, with the touches of humor that such truth brings. The tragedies are the mundane tragedies of everyday life; a promising brother becomes alcoholic; a heavy smoking mother dies. I came across this book by accident, and never saw it reviewed in the New York Times book review or the Times Literary Supplement. It was a wonderful experience to open a first novel by an unknown author and find writing of this caliber. Bobby Ann Mason, Raymond Carver, Attwood and Monro were the writers I was reminded of. Donoghue belongs in their company, the company of genius.