''A Good House'' is the first novel by
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
writer
Bonnie Burnard
Bonnie Burnard (January 15, 1945 – March 4, 2017) was a Canadian short story writer and novelist, best known for her 1999 novel, ''A Good House'',[Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...]
in United States of America. It was the winner of that year's
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...
. The novel narrates the story of a family in three generations, five houses starting from 1949 until 1997.
Plot
The story starts in 1949 in the small town of Stonebrook, Ontario, near
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
and is about the Chambers family and starts in a hopeful era of post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Bill is an ex-Navy veteran who had been injured losing three fingers of his right hand in the war and he has three children with his wife Sylvia; Patrick, Daphne, and Paul. Daphne, when 12 years old, meets an accident in 1952 which deforms her face permanently and asymmetrically while performing acrobatics in a circus on
trapeze. In 1955, Sylvia dies of cancer when aged 40 and Bill later marries Margaret. Margaret and Bill used to be co-workers at a hardware store. Margaret raises the three children and keeps the family together and has a daughter Sarah together with Bill.
The eldest brother Patrick becomes a lawyer, the youngest Paul gains popularity in hockey but eventually marries early, fathers an imperfect child and becomes a farmer. Daphne chooses an odd path for the time and becomes a single mother of two daughters. Paul dies at an early age. Bill steps into his old age not very gracefully suffering with
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
but Margaret still keeps the family in control. As time passes the novel travels till 1997 and the nuclear family diverges yet keeps meeting together to share happy and sad times.
Publication
The book was published by
Harper Flamingo in Canada in 1999 and later by
Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...
in United States of America. It has ten chapters and is dedicated to poet
Anne Szumigalski who had helped Burnard during her budding days in her literary career. Burnard said that the novel is about "the way I understand life to be". The minor character's names were based on friends of her own children. The book is edited by Phyllis Bruce and Jan Whitford was Burnard's agent for the publications. The novel narrates the story involving three generation and five houses with none of the characters talking in the
first person.
The novel was also published in United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and in twelve other countries from 1999 to 2002.
Reception and reviews
The book was Burnard's first novel. She had earlier independently published two award-winning short story collections ''Women of Influence'' (1988) and '' Casino & Other Stories'' (1994) and had also co-written other short story collections. The debut novel became a best-seller in Canada.
The
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library notes Burnard's "remarkable ability to probe the hidden, often disturbing landscapes of love and to illuminate the complexities of human experience".
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
in their review call it "
nextraordinarily moving and beautifully crafted first novel".
Canadian author
Carol Shields called it a "finest novel published in some years in our country" and appreciated its grace, generosity, and humanity.
Louisa Kamps reviewing the book for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' writes that "Burnard's painstaking focus on seemingly mundane details makes the events that shape her characters' lives not only believable but also somehow bigger than the moment, universally true."
Valerie Ryan of ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'' compared the simplicity of the narrative with American author
Howard Norman
Howard A. Norman (born 1949), is an American writer and educator. Most of his short stories and novels are set in Canada's Maritime Provinces. He has written several translations of Algonquin, Cree, and Inuit folklore. His books have been trans ...
's notable novel ''The Bird Artist''.
''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'' compliment the character setting of the family members who "respond gallantly to love, death, and life's unexpected assaults on family happiness". ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' notes the grace with which the "traditional generational saga" unfolds. ''
Library Journal Review
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
'' mentions of the title of the novel that "it isn't really a book about a house and has something to say about its solidity and graceful prose."
Janice Harayda
Janice Harayda (born July 31, 1949) is an American author, newspaper writer, and book reviewer. She has worked for multiple magazines and has taught in colleges. Her writing includes five books and a blog with book reviews.
Personal life and car ...
of ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'' criticizes the novel for falling below the best work of "estimate writers" of Canada like
Alice Munro,
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
, and
Michael Ondaatje and complains that the novel does a biased stand with Canadians over Americans in its 1970s narrative.
Awards
Burnard won the
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...
for this debut novel. The jury for the award were anthologist and novelist
Alberto Manguel, businesswoman and philanthropist
Judith Mappin
Judith Mappin (born Judith Taylor in Toronto) was a Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist. She was the daughter of businessman E. P. Taylor, and she was a trustee of the Charles Taylor Prize for Canadian non-fiction literature, named after he ...
, and novelist
. Burnard was nominated for the award along with
Timothy Findley (''
Pilgrim
A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on Pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the a ...
''),
Anne Hébert
Anne Hébert (pronounced in French) (August 1, 1916 – January 22, 2000), was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award, three times, twice for fiction and once for poetry.
Early life
Hébe ...
(''
Am I Disturbing You?''),
Nancy Huston
Nancy Louise Huston, OC (born September 16, 1953) is a Canadian-born novelist and essayist who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English.
Biography
Huston was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the city in which she l ...
(''
The Mark of the Angel''), and
David Macfarlane
David Macfarlane (born 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian journalist, playwright and novelist.
His debut novel, 1999's '' Summer Gone'', was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and was a winner of the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
His New ...
(''
Summer Gone
''Summer Gone'' is the first novel by Canadian writer David Macfarlane. Published in 1999 by Knopf Canada, ''Summer Gone'' was a national bestseller in Canada. It was nominated for the Giller Prize, and won the Books in Canada First Novel Award. ...
''). The prize included a cash remuneration of $25,000 and she thanked her editor Bruce and agent Whitford in the award's acceptance speech by saying, "We are three middle-aged women with grey hair and it's not a bad thing to be."
The citation for the award reads that "
urnardimbues the apparently ordinary lives of her characters with an integrity and a depth of emotion that in the end make them unforgettable" and also mentions that "the novel gives us the sweep of whole lives lived so that we come away with what feels like wisdom, a sense of the moments that truly give value and meaning to a life."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Good House, A
1999 Canadian novels
Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning works
Henry Holt and Company books
1999 debut novels